Alexandra

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Director: ALEKSANDER SOKUROV

Opera legend Vishnevskaya (wife of the late Mstislav Rostropovich) gives a performance for the ages as Alexandra, an elderly but feisty Russian widow who undertakes a long and dangerous journey from Russia to the war-torn Chechen countryside to see her officer grandson, long-stationed at a ramshackle army camp.

As we follow her interactions with befuddled soldiers and wary civilians, Sokurov (Russian Ark, Mother and Son) builds a subtle study of family, war and humanity via her somewhat vague visit as she roams the military base, waddling around with a rickety shopping cart, curious about her son’s life and the war. Alexandra earned director Sokurov a Golden Palm nomination at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

(In Russian w/ Eng. Subtitles)

RUSSIA • 2007 • 95 MINUTES • DIRECTOR: ALEKSANDER SOKUROV