Oriental Elegy

A beautiful old Japanese woman talks about bygone times and the family unity that is so important in Japan. ”Oriental Elegy” takes us on a meditative journey to a little Japanese island village where we are shown landscapes, houses, things, and people as if out of a dream. They appear blurred and Sokurov cautiously draws near. It is a film about seeing the end of one's life, but it is also an inner journey for the director and conjures up memories from his homeland Russia.
Stockholm's Film Festival this year has the pleasure of presenting two masterpieces by Aleksandr Sokurov”, Oriental Elegy”, and ”Mutter und Sohn.” The images in ”Oriental Elegy” are even more calm, melancholic and beautiful than ”Mutter und Sohn”, if that's possible. It won the award for Best International Short at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in 1996 and was also awarded the Grand Prize of the International Jury.
Just as in ”Mutter und Sohn”, we wander through a gallery rich in images. It is all in black and white, and so beautiful that one could imagine it were painted. This is a strange phenomenon - filming in such a way as to make it appear painted or drawn, to make it seem handmade. It used to be that one attempted to use painting to depict reality, but Sokurov uses film to depict painting. Why? Perhaps because it is easier to capture the poetry - that which appears painted. Perhaps simply because this is the hallmark of Sokurov's style and he does it so well. To view these films, one must be bold enough to set aside all reference to mere plot and concentrate completely on the lyrical elements of film narrative, something we have certainly not had too much of in today's cinemas.
Helena Hederberg

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Orig. titel
Wastotschnaja Elegia: Foto
Alekej Fjodorov: Musik
Gustav Mahler, Pjotr Tjajkovskij, Rickard Wagner: Talat språk
Italian