Chinese Version
Mat i Syn (Russia / Germany)
Mother and son
Whisht conciliation
Director: Alexander Sokurov
Cast: Gudrun Geyer Alexei Ananishnov
Footage: 75min
Year: 1997
The director awakens the senses to the world of nature, human relationships, and death in this film about the poignant last hours of a dying mother and the son who cares for her.
The mother and son are not named, they live in an isolated, run-down home in the countryside. One night they have dreamed the same dream, and the son carries the mother outside where he reads old postcards to her and they reminisce about their past - strengthening themselves against the impact of a separation they know is coming soon.
Every image is carefully composed, evoking the work of the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. The Monk by the sea (1810) is the film's primary esthetic inspiration. Director Sokurov saids: "What's most important for me in this painting is its use of shadows and subdued colors, the openness of the composition, and, at the same time, it's rigor. The dramatic atmosphere of paintings like that correspond to the mood of my film."
References:
Mat i syn (1997)(aka Mother and Son)
Mother And Son (Mutter und Sohn)
Works of the same director:
