Alexandre SOKUROV
Александр СОКУРОВ
Alexandre SOKOUROV
Russia / France / Netherlands, 2001, 47mn 
Colour, documentary
Elegy of a Voyage
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Элегия дороги

 

 Elégie de la traversée

 Elegiya dorogi

 
Directed by : Alexandre SOKUROV ( Александр СОКУРОВ)
Writing credits : Alexandre SOKUROV ( Александр СОКУРОВ)
Sound : Sergey MOSHKOV (Сергей МОШКОВ)
Produced by : Pierre-Olivier BARDE (Пьер–Оливье БАРДЕ), Andrey DERYABIN (Андрей ДЕРЯБИН)
Production : Idéale Audience (France) / Studio Bereg (Студия «Берег») (Russie) / The Kasander Film Company (Pays-Bas)
 
format : Beta

DVD with subtitles
Editor : Ideale Audience. 2006.
Langues : RU, sous-titres : FR EN ES IT
Bonus : Interview d’Alexandre Sokurov - DVD-ROM avec notes d’édition, biographie et filmographie.

Plot synopsis
In this film, the artistic transformation of the objects of reality reaches the pinnacle of the author’s alteration of this reality. The author’s thoughts and words anticipate the appearance of visual images crystallised from flickering impressions of reality, composed in a manner that is eloquent yet austere, fantastic yet truthful.
In this voyage the names of people and places are alienated: this unfettered dream, a dream about the infinitude of space and time, needs no frontiers or passports.
Images of the native land: an altar in a church where a baby is being baptised, surrounded by sombre faces, the familiar landscapes of “abandoned homeland”, the frontier zone – are succeeded by other images: by the glittering lights of a western town at night, by the portrait of a young man, speaking a foreign language and retaining his smile even at a sad recollection.
Neither these landscapes nor these portraits convey distinctive marks of today's life, but rather the unchanging generic features of various sources of human existence. Only the director's will leads us to the point of convergence. When, following him through deserted rooms of a museum at night, in old 16th century Dutch paintings we discern and recognise the elusive warmth of life and our eternal yearning for a voyage – so that we may return – to one another. For art alone can give us the unique chance to take part in this cycle.
Alexandra Tuchinskaya English translation by Anna Shoulgat and Nora Hoppe, © 2001, http://sokurov.spb.ru
 

Commentaries and bibliography
Élégie de la traversée (2001) [Alexandre Sokourov], Julien MORVAN, Perestroikino, 2021
Hubert Robert, Élégie de la traversée (Alexandre Sokourov), thbz, bloc-notes.thbz.org, 2010
Alexandre Sokourov, François ALBERA, Mishel ESTEVE, CinémaAction, Editions Charles Corlet, 2009
Elégie de la traversée, Vincent OSTRIA, lesinrocks.com, 2001
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Rétrospective Alexandre Sokourov Aix en Provence / Marseille, Aix en Provence (France), 2015
- Transversales cinématographiques, Rennes (France), 2012
- Month of the documentary in France, Different cities (France), 2010
- Mois du film documentaire au Centre Pompidou, Paris (France), 2010
- Alexandre Sokourov : des pages cachées, Paris (France), 2010
- Festival "Etonnants voyageurs" à Saint Malo, Saint Malo (France), 2010
- Russian documentaries - musée du quai Branly (Paris), Paris (France), 2008
- États généraux du film documentaire, Lussas (France), 2002

Photos and videos