Described by Aleksandr Sukorov as "the incarnation of a fairytale", Father And Son is the amazingly mysterious second instalment in the director's planned trilogy about family relationships (the first was Mother And Son). It charts the relationship between a man (Andrei Shchetinin) and his offspring (Aleksei Nejmyshev) who live on the top floor of an old house. The father is a veteran of some unspecified war; the son is an army recruit. They spend their days gazing into each other's eyes and talking about their dead wife and mother.
Dissecting the bond between them - a bond that has as much to do with fiercely macho competition as love - Sukorov mythologises the father as a strong, immovable figure who must be dispatched in order for the son to flourish. Physicality dominates the film, from the opening shots of the pair entwined naked on a bed like lovers, to the boy's hand-to-hand combat classes which Sukorov shoots in long takes as transfixed by the rough and tumble of male bodies.
After the breathtaking pomp and circumstance of Russian Ark, Father And Son is full of intimate moments. Shot through yellow filters, the cinematography basks in the golden glow of a setting sun. The frame seems distorted, while the sets (shot in Lisbon for Russia) are deliberately artificial and stage-like. Most striking of all, the soundtrack is looped and layered with a series of unsettling effects, making it as rich and diffuse as the film itself.
"DREAMILY SEDUCTIVE... PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING"
Underlying it all is a religious allegory. "A father's love crucifies. A loving son lets himself be crucified," whispers the dad as he explains the joys of submitting to authority. Yet as it links paternalism, militarism, and nationalism, this achingly beautiful film proves dreamily seductive but also profoundly disturbing.
In Russian with English subtitles.
Father And Son (Otets I Syn) (2004)
