The Return is a quiet and disquieting masterpiece which gets under your skin and stays there long after you leave the cinema. It tells the story of two Russian boys whose father suddenly returns home after a 12-year absence. He takes the boys on a holiday to a remote island on a lake that turns into a test of manhood of almost mythic proportions.
The film is a strange, intriguing rites-of-passage drama with an overpowering sense of menace. Its story alludes to religious and political parallels without ever clarifying them. A chilly, brilliant film from a startlingly talented debutant director that fascinates from its first frame. The Return won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
The film is a strange, intriguing rites-of-passage drama with an overpowering sense of menace. Its story alludes to religious and political parallels without ever clarifying them. A chilly, brilliant film from a startlingly talented debutant director that fascinates from its first frame. The Return won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.