Starring: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Rated: M15+
(Russian with English subtitles. )
THE Return is the first film by director Andrej Zvjagintsev and won the Golden Lion and several other awards at the Venice Film Festival in 2003, including the SIGNIS Catholic prize.
It draws on classic traditions from Russian cinema, a great deal of introspection, some mysticism and a focus on the Russian soul. The photography is both beautiful and bleak.
The film is also a powerful road movie, tense and symbolic, where two boys, one who is devoted to his father, the other stubborn and resentful, travel with their father who has been absent from the family for 12 years.
It explores the demands of trust, the difficulties in communication, forgiveness and grief. There are overtones of biblical commentary (the photo of the father contained in the Bible, the relationship between fathers and sons, the sacrifice of Isaac). There are also symbolic echoes of the journey of the dead on the River Styx.
Water is used as a symbol throughout the film, opening with an underwater scene which in fact is the end of the film, the boys in the town jumping into the water – there is a lot of rain, voyages on water, storms. Another dimension is height, where the young boy is afraid to jump – while his father, trying to rescue him from a tower falls to his death.
The film is a multi-layered look at relationships, set firmly in a Russian context and mood, but with enough universal values to interest world viewers.
