You know that you deal with a masterpiece since the opening scenes of 'Return'. The cinematography of this film is special - light is filtered in metallic nuances, and gray, blue and green seem to be the only colors in Andrei Zvyagintsev's universe. The landscape is the desolation of post-Communist Russia, with skeleton's of industrial structures remained without goal and usage, swallowed back by non-exuberant natural wilderness.
It is in this universe that we meet the two children brothers, reading an unhappy pre-teen age at then end of a childhood that seems to be without too many joys, or even toys. And then the father returns, the father who was away foe many years, we do not know why he left, or why he comes back. The father will take the two sons in what starts to be a fishing trip, but turns into a seven days making of their world trip. The film seems to be about the uneasy relation between father and sons, and about the coming to age of the children, and it plays well in this space, with fine acting and a touch of mystery and tension that catches you while seeing the film, and does not live you long after screening is finished. It is however a much more complex movie, and it can be read into many layers. One is of the religious symbols, with a plethora of reversed symbols - it is the prodigal father who returns, it is he who sacrifices himself, and not the sons as in the biblical stories of Isaac and Jesus. Another possible level of reading this movie is of the renewing Russia. Renewing, but how - in obedience as the elder son is behaving, or in rebellion, as the path taken by the younger son.
Hard to describe in words such a film. A simple story, basic directing tools but such a richness of sentiments, and such a variety of thoughts that seeing this film triggers. Andrei Zvyagintsev may be at his fist film, and 'The Return' stands at the same level of complexity as the masterpieces of Tarkowsky and Mihalkov.
It is in this universe that we meet the two children brothers, reading an unhappy pre-teen age at then end of a childhood that seems to be without too many joys, or even toys. And then the father returns, the father who was away foe many years, we do not know why he left, or why he comes back. The father will take the two sons in what starts to be a fishing trip, but turns into a seven days making of their world trip. The film seems to be about the uneasy relation between father and sons, and about the coming to age of the children, and it plays well in this space, with fine acting and a touch of mystery and tension that catches you while seeing the film, and does not live you long after screening is finished. It is however a much more complex movie, and it can be read into many layers. One is of the religious symbols, with a plethora of reversed symbols - it is the prodigal father who returns, it is he who sacrifices himself, and not the sons as in the biblical stories of Isaac and Jesus. Another possible level of reading this movie is of the renewing Russia. Renewing, but how - in obedience as the elder son is behaving, or in rebellion, as the path taken by the younger son.
Hard to describe in words such a film. A simple story, basic directing tools but such a richness of sentiments, and such a variety of thoughts that seeing this film triggers. Andrei Zvyagintsev may be at his fist film, and 'The Return' stands at the same level of complexity as the masterpieces of Tarkowsky and Mihalkov.