Scottsdale International Film Festival 2008

Alexandra (played to perfection by veteran Bolshoi Theater soprano Galina Vishnevskaya) is a no-nonsense Russian matriarch in her seventies who travels by train to visit her beloved grandson, the captain of a military base in the Chechen Republic. The lone woman in this middle-of-nowhere landscape populated entirely by young, bare-chested soldiers waiting in limbo for orders to attack an unseen enemy, Alexandra is a most unlikely yet welcome apparition, embodying long-lost comforts of home for boys who lose their innocence in the (off-screen) horrors of battle. Unfazed by constant threats of danger, Alexandra wanders off the base to the local market and befriends an elderly Chechen with whom she shares a cup of tea and family histories against a surreal backdrop of bombed-out buildings—women and architecture similarly devastated by wartime destruction. Later, she lets her hair down during a murmured conversation with her grandson. Sokurov depicts these intimate scenes in a camouflage color scheme, matched in mood by Andrei Sigle’s gorgeous classical score. The great director once again confronts his country’s past and present, locating universal truths in his poetic vision of life as both dream and nightmare. Guided by his camera, ALEXANDRA is a survivor of history and of cinema itself. ~ San Francisco International Film Festival

Fred Linch will moderate a 30-35 minute post-film discussion with the audience.