CANNES:
: It was one of the more talked about films at the 60th Cannes
film festival. It is crafted well and shot beautifully.
The film begins with a car rolling down the countryside over
a beautiful landscape covering hilly roads. The only sounds
you can hear are of the car as its wheels move over the roads.
It then moves into a city. The skies descend and it pours. The
only sounds you can hear are the pitter patter of the raindrops.
The mood is sombre, dark and little is said. The car screeches
to a halt. The man, Mark, (Alexander Baluev) gets out and climbs
up the stairs. He is reportedly injured. His brother, the protagonist
Alex (Konstantin Lavronenko), performs a surgery on his arm
removing a bullet from it. There is not much dialogue, every
action is recorded with detail.
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| The
Banishment |
The
bond between the two men established, Russian director Andrei
Zvyagintsev then focuses on Alex who has been away from home
working elsewhere to earn a living. His brother advises him
to shift to the family's ancestral home in the countryside
with his family. The shot of his wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie)
and his two children in the train shows a family which is
attempting to keep itself together, trying to come to peace.
But that peace is shattered soon.
But
before that Andrei along with cinematographer Mikhail Krichman
pan the beautiful landscape with some stunning shots amidst
visits from neighbours and friends. The peacebreaker comes
in when Vera tells him that she is expecting and that the
child is not his. He is calm, goes out and then strikes her
and then goes out again driving around. He calls Mark seeking
his advice. Mark wants to meet him but Alex does not venture,
instead he goes back home.
Alex
then tells Vera she must abort the child almost as a punishment
for the transgression. She is reluctant showing the schism
in the relationship and how distant the two have become from
each other over time. After much debate she agrees. Mark comes
over and Alex goes to meet him at the station, and along the
way he discovers - through his son - that Robert - somebody
the family knows - had come over to meet her in his absence.
He assumes that Robert is the father.
Mark
finds a doctor to abort the baby. The children are sent away
to the neighbours' for the night. Something goes seriously
wrong during the surgery in the ancestral home and Vera dies
after a probable overdose of anesthesia.
Mark
then gets a heart attack, but he proceeds to go with Alex
to bury Vera. He then dies himself. Alex then goes to town
to his home and there he encounters Robert who narrates that
he had helped Vera when she had tried to kill herself with
an overdose and he had no physical contact with her.
The
director then goes back to the countryside wherein the stream
that had been dried for a long time since Alex's childhood,
starts flowing again following a severe downpour.
Crafted
masterfully, by the director of The Return, the film is about
159 minutes in length. The story too could have been told
simpler, and the narrative a little less twisted. But it is
to Zvyagintsev's credit that he retains the audience's interest
throughout. The film also has masterful performances from
the cast: Lavronenko's portrayal of the brooding Alex got
him the best actor award at Cannes.
Alex
(Konstantin Lavronenko)
Vera (Maria Bonnevie)
Mark (Alexander Baluev)
Kir (Maxim Shibaev)
Eva (Katya Kulkina)
Robert (Dmitry Ulianov)
Max (Alexey Vertkov)
Credits
Directed
by Andrei Zvyagintsev
Screenplay: Oleg Negin, Andrei Zvyaguntsev, Artem Melkumjan,
based on a story by: William Saroyan
Producers: Dmitri Lesnevsky
Executive producer: Elena Loginova
Director of photography: Mikhail Krichman
Production designer: Andrey Ponkratov
Music: Andrey Dergachev, Arvo Part
Costume designer: Anna Barthuly
Editor: Anna Mass
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