Father and Son directed by F ather and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov

with Andrey Shchetinin and Aleksey Neymyshev

screenplay Sergey Potepalov director of photography Alexander Burov editor Sergey Ivanov art directorNatalya Kochergina composer A n d r e y S i g l e , music based on themes by Peter Tchaikovsky costume designer B e r nadette Corstens make-up artist Z hanna Rodionova sound designer Sergey Moshkov producer T homas Kufus production z e r o f i l m in co-production with L u men Films, Nikola-Film, Mikado Film and Isabella Films

in cooperation with L e n f i l m , St. Petersburg with support from M i n i s t r y o f C u l t u r e o f the Russian Federation, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Centre National de la Cinématographie, Dutch Filmfund and Fondazione MonteCinemaVerità »She said we built a Fortress – That we don’t let anyone inside« c olor – 84 min – 35 mm – 1,66 – Dolby SRD – 2003

world sales Celluloid Dreams 2 rue Turgot F 75009 Paris T (+33-1) 4970-0370 F (+33-1) 4970-0371 [email protected] www.celluloid-dreams.com Cannes: Grand Hôtel Dauphin 7D T (+33-4) 9399-8470 F (+33-4) 9399-8471

international press Richard Lormand / Viviana Andriani Father and Son www.filmpressplus.com [email protected] directed by Alexander Sokurov Cannes: (May 14–25) T (+33-6) 2416-3731 F (+33-4) 9368-9745 S ynopsis The Story of a Family

Father and Son live together in a rooftop apartment. They have lived A small family – a father and a son – lives on the top floor of an old alone for years in their own private world, full of memories and daily house. rituals. Sometimes they seem like brothers. Sometimes even like lovers. The father retired from the military, leaving his beloved air regiment. Following in his father’s footstops, Alexei attends military school. He ended his military career not of his own wishes – circumstances He likes sports, tends to be irresponsible and has problems with his forced him to. A former participant in military actions, now he has girlfriend. She is jealous of Alexei’s close relationship with his father. been transferred to the reserve as he begins middle age. When he was Despite knowing that all sons must one day live their own lives, a student in flight school, he experienced the first and the only love of Alexei is conflicted. his life. This girl became his wife and she gave birth to his son. Both of them were twenty years old then. The wife died when she was young. Alexei’s father knows he should maybe accept a better job in another This love remained his secret unique happiness. city, maybe search for a new wife. But who will ease the pain of Alexei’s nightmares? The son grew up, and he will probably be a military man like his father. The son’s features constantly remind the father of his wife. He doesn’t Never has love between a father and son been so strong. separate his son from his still persisting love: this is his unity with his beloved woman. The father cannot imagine his life without his son. The son loves his father devotedly and deeply, a filial feeling intensified by an instinctive moral responsibility that is being tested by life. »Whisper your Fears to running Water« Their love is almost of mythological virtue and scale. It cannot happen in real life. It’s the incarnation of a fairy-tale.

Alexander Sokurov

Father and Son Father and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov directed by Alexander Sokurov Alexander Sokurov director Features Documentaries and Shorts Sergei Potepalov Screenwriter

Alexander Sokurov’s unique style has been credited to the visual splendor, 1978 The Lonely Voice of Man 1978 Maria 40 min. Sergei Potepalov wrote and directed 1990’s A Cry for Help hermetic intensity and sense of suspended time found with in his 1983 P ainful Indifference 1979 Sonata for Hitler 10 min. (winner of the ’s »Golden Fleece« prize), 1985’s Hearsay/ films. With over 30 features, documentaries and shorts to date, Sokurov 1988 D a y s o f E c l i p s e 1980 P odslushannij Rasgover and 1980’s Stranger’s Company. has dedicted his life to his own personal search for a cinematographic 1989 S a v e and Protect 1981 Sonata for Viola Dmitry Shostakovich Potepalov is also the screenwriter of the 1970’s science fiction series language to communicate the fundamentals of human experience. 1990 S e c ond Circle 90 min. »The Failure of Engineer Garin« for Russian television. Potepalov 1992 S t one 1982 And Nothing More 70 min. attended Film School after graduating in Philology from Sokurov made his first feature film, The Lonely Voice of Man, 1993 W hispering Pages 1984 Evening Sacrifice 20 min. Leningrad State University. in 1978 as his graduation project from the Moscow Film School (VGIK). 1996 Mother and Son 1985 Patience Labour 10 min. The film was rejected by the school, as well as the Soviet government. 1999 Moloch 1985 Elegie 30 min. This was also the case for all the numerous films he made at the 2000 Ta u r u s 1986 88 min. Leningrad Documentary Film Studios. For nearly 10 years, Sokurov’s 2001 R u s s i a n A r k 1987 The Empire Style 40 min. Alexander Burov Director of Photography films were banned in the then-. With support from the 2002 Father and Son 1989 Petersburg Elegy 40 min. late (and then-exiled) cinema master Andrei Tarkowski, Sokurov’s films 1989 Soviet Elegy 40 min. Alexander Burov previously collaborated with Alexander Sokurov on were eventually granted screening permission in 1986. 1990 To the Events in the Transcaucasian his features Whispering Pages and , Region 10 min. as well as the short and medium-length films K amen/Stone, A St. Petersburg resident, Sokurov was born in in 1951. Because 1990 A Simple Elegy 30 min. An Example of Intonation, Evening Sacrifice, of his military father, he spent much of his childhood in Poland and 1990 A Retrospection of Leningrad And Nothing More, Maria/Peasant Elegy, Elegy Turkistan. He studied history at the University of Gorky before atten- (1957 – 1990) 788 min. from Russia and The Moscow Elegy. Burov received a ding film school. 1991 An Example of Intonation 48 min. 2000 European Film Awards nomation for his cinematography on 1993 Elegy from Russia 68 min. Pavel Lungin’s The Wedding. Burov’s other credits include 1995 Spiritual Voices 327 min. Vladimir Maslov & Yevgeni Yufit's Silver Heads,Yevgeni Yufit’s 1996 Oriental Elegy 45 min. P apa, Santa Claus is dead and Warriors of Heaven. 1996 Hubert Robert. Burov is a 198s graduate of the Russian State Institute of A Fortunate Life 26 min. Cinematography. 1997 A Humble Life 75 min. 1997 A Petersburg Diary. The Opening of the Dostoyevsky Monument 45 min. 1998 A Petersburg Diary. The Kozintsev Apartment 52 min. 1998 260 min. 1998 The Knot 90 min. Father and Son 1998 Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn 104 min. Father and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov 1999 Dolce 61 min. directed by Alexander Sokurov 2001 Elegy of a Voyage 90 min. Alexander Sokurov’s Father and Son is the second film of his planned trilogy dedicated to the drama of human relations. As well as in the first film, Mother and Son, the director recreates the environment of a parable. This parable has neither a beginning nor an end. There are no temporal or topographic landmarks. It is possible to lose one’s way in the time period and landscapes, are vary in the film.

This is what happens to the Son in a dream sequence, looking no bigger than a finger in a familiar, but still strange forest. A soldier’s uniform is seen in the latest style, while women’s dresses and hairstyles are of the 40s, 50s and 60s. Roofs and narrow streets of an old northern town can be seen under a bright southern sun. The film takes place against this collective landscape. The film flows nearly unnoticeably through interiors where the mode of life is conventional, but hardly typical: a table, a bed, flowers. The only signs are symbols of a human dwelling.

The faces of the film’s characters are striking and very contemporary. Non-professional performers play the main roles. »A Soldier should not fear« The son who grew up without a mother found everything in his father’s love – cradle, home, school and harbor. Now young manhood calls him to the open sea of life. Torn between interest in his father’s past and unhappy love (his girlfriend left him for another man) are left unresolved. The son’s worries are felt by the still youthful father, break- ing their world into two. This world was once indivisible for them. From now on, father and son will have their individual lives to come together again sometime in the future.

Alexander Sokurov plans to shoot Two Brothers and a Sister to finish his family trilogy. »I’m starting to forget your face.«

Alexandra Tuchinskaya

Father and Son Father and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov directed by Alexander Sokurov F ather and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov

father A n d r e y Shchetinin son Aleksey Neymyshev sasha Alexander Razbash fedor F edor Lavrov girl M a r i n a Z asukhina

director Alexander Sokurov screenplay Sergey Potepalov director of photography Alexander Burov editor Sergey Ivanov art directorNatalya Kochergina composer A n d r e y S i g l e , music based on themes by Peter Tchaikovsky costume designer B e r nadette Corstens make-up artist Z hanna Rodionova sound designer Sergey Moshkov assistant director Tamara Agadzhanyan casting Ta t y ana Komarova international production coordinator M a r ina Koreneva production manager – russia E duard Artsikhovsky line producer Claudia Spiller commissioning editor WDR S a bine Rollberg producer T homas Kufus co-producers Hengameh Panahi, Igor Kalenov, Luigi Musini, Roberto Cicutto, Els Vandevorst, Ineke van Wierst production z e r o f i l m in co-production with L u m e n F i l m s , N i k ola-Film, Mikado Film and Isabella Films in cooperation with L e n f i l m , St. Petersburg with support from M i n i s t r y o f C ulture of the Russian Federation, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Centre National de la Cinématographie, Dutch Filmfund and Fondazione MonteCinemaVerità

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Father and Son Father and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov directed by Alexander Sokurov © photo Evgeny Taran Taran © photo Evgeny design atelier : doppelpunkt, Berlin Father and Son directed by Alexander Sokurov