ChiaroScuro presents



(The Return | Le retour | Die Rückkehr)


by Andrej Zvjagincev [Андрей Звягинцев]

Russia 2003




Director:

Andrej Zvjagincev [Андрей Звягинцев]
Producer:

Dmitrij Lesnevskij
Executive Producer:

Elena Kovaleva
Production Companies:

REN-fil'm [ru]
Screenplay:

Vladimir Moiseenko, Aleksandr Novotockij
Cinematographer:

Mikhail Kričman (35 mm, Colour, 1.85:1)
Editor:

Vladimir Mogilevskij
Music Score:

Andrej Dergačev
Sound:

Andrej Khudjakov (Dolby Digital)
Art Director:

Žanna Pakhomova
Costumes:

Anna Barthuly
Make-Up:

Galja Ponomareva
Cast:

Vladimir Garin (Andrej), Ivan Dobronravov (Ivan), Konstantin Lavronenko (Father), Natal'ja Vdovina (Mother), Galina Petrova (Grandmother)


Filming Locations:

Vyborg, Priozersk, Zelenogorsk, Lake Ladoga
Runtime:

110 min
Premiere:

4 September 2003 (60th Venice International Film Festival)
Awards:

• Venice Film Festival 2003 Won 'CinemAvvenire' Award Best First Film; Golden Lion; Luigi De Laurentiis Award; SIGNIS Award; Sergio Trasatti Award / Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema 2003 Won Award of the Ecumenical Jury; Special Prize Feature Film Competition For best direction
• César Awards, France 2004
Nominated César Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger)
• European Film Awards 2003
Won European Discovery of the Year
• Fajr Film Festival 2004
Won Crystal Simorgh International Competition: Best Film
• Gijón International Film Festival 2003
Won Best Actor: Ivan Dobronravov, Tied with  Vladimir Garin for Vozvrashcheniye (2003) and  Konstantin Lavronenko; Best Screenplay; Special Jury Award
• Ljubljana International Film Festival 2003
Won Kingfisher Award
• Nika Awards 2004
Won Nika Best Cinematographer; Best Film
• Palm Springs International Film Festival 2004
Won FIPRESCI Prize
• Russian Guild of Film Critics 2003
Won Golden Aries Best Cinematography; Best Debut; Best Film
• Thessaloniki Film Festival 2003
Won FIPRESCI Prize - Special Mention
• Tromsø International Film Festival 2004
Won Audience Award

(click posters to enlarge)






"Beautifully structured and emotionally wrenching, this 2003 debut feature immediately establishes Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev as a master. It charts a father's uneasy return to his wife and two adolescent sons after a long and unexplained absence, a reunion capped by his ill-fated fishing trip with the two boys. A former actor, Zvyagintsev elicits first-rate performances from his male leads, but what registers most is the sharpness and intensity of his vision of nature and childhood experience. [...] this has been described by the director as "a mythological look [at] human life," as accurate a description as any I've encountered."
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

"Winner of the same Venice Film Festival that gave a decidedly mixed reception to The Dreamers, Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Return is also suggestive of a lost era—the highly crafted allegorical Eastern European art films of the '60s and '70s.

Zvyagintsev, a former actor and TV director, locks on to a compelling story that has both psychological and political resonance. After an absence of 12 years, the father of two adolescent boys abruptly materializes in the home of their pretty blonde mother and, by way of getting acquainted, insists on taking his confused sons on a fishing trip. Rough-hewn, handsome, and casually brutal, the father (Konstantin Lavronenko) seems to be a proponent of tough love. Fifteen-year-old Andrey (Vladimir Garin) is eager for paternal attention, but 12ish Vanya (Ivan Dobronravov)—prone to be picked on, overly attached to his mother, and scared of heights—is considerably less enthusiastic.

[...] Expertly shot by Mikhail Kritchman, The Return unfolds in a somewhat emptied-out world. The look is austere but lush, the color slightly leached. The boys live in an underpopulated settlement in a stylishly povera house; the town where they stop for lunch is largely devoid of human presence; their father takes them through wilderness to a seemingly deserted island. While the natural world is photographed with an elementalism strongly reminiscent of Andrei Tarkovsky, what's most concrete in the movie are the performances. The kids are terrific. While Andrey is wide-eyed and incredulous, pinched, angry Vanya turns out to be the tougher of the two. No less surprising, the taciturn father is not completely uncaring.

The Return begins as a mysterious quest, shades into a discomfiting thriller, then a survival story, and finally a tragic parable. Primordial and laconic, this remarkably assured debut feature has the elegant simplicity of its title. The mode is sustained, the structure overt. Some may be put off by the movie's cool technique and boldly closed form, but it clearly announces Zvyagintsev as a director to watch. "  
—  J.Hoberman, Village Voice

"Die Rückkehr". Dieser Titel paßt im doppelten Sinn, denn der Film, den Andrej Swjaginzew gedreht hat, erzählt nicht nur von einer Rückkehr, der Wiederkehr des verschwundenen Vaters ins Leben zweier Kinder, sondern er symbolisiert sie auch: die Rückkehr des russischen Kinos auf die Landkarte der Kinematografie. Und er bestätigt eine Erfahrung, die man alle paar Jahre bei der Begegnung mit einem Kinoerstling machen kann: Große Regisseure werden nicht allmählich groß. Sie sind sofort da, wo andere nie hingelangen werden, im ersten Anlauf. Andrej Swjaginzew ist ein großer Regisseur, und "Die Rückkehr" ist sein Debüt.

[...] So wirkt Swjaginzews Film in allen entscheidenden Momenten immer zugleich symbolisch und real, er hält jene Balance, die im Kino am schwierigsten zu halten ist: zwischen dem, was ein Bild bedeutet, und dem, was man tatsächlich sieht; zwischen Geschehen und Allegorie. Es gibt fast kein Grundthema des jüngeren russischen Kinos, das Swjaginzew nicht anspielt, und doch gewinnt er jedem eine neue, überraschende Klangfarbe ab, als hätte er es gerade erst entdeckt.

[...] Hunderttausend Dollar habe sein Film gekostet, sagte Swjaginzew in Venedig. Das ist für westliche Ohren eine irreale Zahl, so irreal wie die Vorstellung, daß der russische Regisseur sein Debüt mit einem Team von Debütanten gedreht hat. Nichts davon sieht man der "Rückkehr" an. Der Film wirkt vielmehr, als hätte er eine lange Ahnenreihe im Rücken, er ist ein Erbe jener handwerklichen Tradition, die mit der Auflösung des kommunistischen Kinoapparats erlosch. Damals wußte man, wie eine Parallelfahrt, ein Zoom, eine Landschaftstotale auszusehen hatte. Heute weiß Swjaginzew es wieder. Und er zeigt es, indem er seine drei Helden auf eine Fahrt ins Unbekannte schickt, die für jeden von ihnen ebenso wie für den Regisseur zur Prüfung wird. [...] Denn die leere Stadt, der tiefe Wald, die einsame Ebene, der weite See, die abgelegene Insel, welche die Stationen dieser Reise bilden, sind ebensosehr Motive des Unterbewußten wie dramatische Schauplätze der Story. Was dort passiert, geschieht wirklich und zugleich wie im Traum.
Andreas Kilb, FAZ

"Le premier film de Andreï Zviaguinstev est un film d’une beauté plastique et d’une maîtrise narrative peu communes. Le récit qu’il nous propose est minimaliste : trois personnages, un homme et deux garçons, effectuent un voyage en direction d’un lieu reculé, puis une fois isolés dans ce lieu, s’engagent dans une lutte l’un contre l’autre. La subtilité de la narration se situe sur cette frontière étroite derrière laquelle l’argument naturaliste laisse place à l’émergence des mythes et des figures du conte. Le père, tour à tour ogre et figure protectrice, les deux fils, parfois soudés contre l’ennemi commun, le plus souvent séparés par la rivalité affective.

LE RETOUR, bien avant d’être un film sur la famille, se présente surtout comme un film sur les éléments premiers : l’eau y est omniprésente, stylisée dès le générique par des sur-cadrages graphiques qui placent d’entrée Andreï Zviaguinstev dans une logique de plasticien. Trouble, froide, elle transite, engloutit, menace. Elle est à la fois la source et le théâtre d’un combat systématique : la plongée, la traversée en bateau, la lutte contre la pluie, la boue sont autant de moments décisifs où se mesurent les rapports de force entre les personnages.

Il est beaucoup question de force dans LE RETOUR. L’élément minéral, tellurique devient le symbole de cette virilité aride qui semble le véritable enjeu de ce bras de fer sourd et anxieux. Le film débute autour d’un plongeoir, promontoire de métal que l’on retrouvera bien plus tard, transposé au centre de l’île. La mise à l’épreuve du personnage s’organise autour de ce totem primitif, à la fois phallus grossier et débris post-industriel. Aura-t-il le courage de sauter, ou non ?

Parcours physique et spirituel (plus que cérébral), le film laisse parfois une émotion trouble et fragile circuler au travers de sa construction stylisée. Un semblant de communication semble s’amorcer, une information voudrait s’échanger. Une question reste en suspens. La figure de l’autre (le père, l’inconnu, l’étranger…) y demeure toujours inaccessible, fuyante, inquiétante. Idée qui trouve sa résolution dans la séquence finale, énigmatique et poignante, qui offre à elle seule une des plus belles conclusions cinématographiques que l’on ait vu depuis longtemps."

Sébastien Gayraud - Ecole Supérieure d'Audio-Visuel, Toulouse









Film Reviews | DVD Reviews






Distribution:

UGC Films UK / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment UK
Region 2 (Europe)

Runtime:

105:55 min (-4% PAL = 110 min at 24 fps)
Video:

1.84:1 / 16:9 Anamorphic WideScreen
Average Bitrate: 5.53 mb/s (4.30 GB)
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
Audio:

• Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Russian Dolby 2.0 Surround
Subtitles:

English (fixed)
Features:

• Making of "Vosvraščenie: Fil'm o fil'me" (63:24 min, Russian with optional English subtitles)

• Theatrical Trailer (02:03 min, 16:9)
• Photo Gallery
• Bonus Trailers: "Blueberry" (02:04 min); "The Story of the Weeping Camel" (01:33 min)



DVD Release Date: 4 October 2004
Keep Case
Chapters: 10
DVD Encoding: PAL Region 2 (EU/UK)
1xSS-DL/DVD-9 (7.62 GB)


Comment:

Zvjagincev's beautiful film becomes even more mysterious after the third viewing. Watch carefully the photograph of the family in the last sequence of the movie and compare it with the same photo from the beginning. There is an important difference. This is above all an inward mind's journey of adolescence and a sharp, precise observation of the distorted and confused role of masculinity in today's Russian society.

A very well-crafted film, heavily bleached and filtered, in many scenes almost monochrome, drenched in blues, greens and greys. The DVD transfer by UGC is handsome and almost free of artefacts, although sometimes the framing seems too tight and especially on the left side, the picture is cropped (you will spot this during the credits, or look at the slightly imbalanced composition of frame 3); there is also a blue streak on the left, but on most TVs this is invisible due to overscanning.

The extras include an hour-long Making-of, dedicated to the young actor Vladimir Garin (the elder brother Andrej), who died almost immediately after the completion of the movie by drowning in a lake near St. Petersburg.

-- Markus / ChiaroScuro

Film: ***** out of *****
DVD:
**** out of *****






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Average Bitrate :
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This is a strictly non-professional and non-commercial DVD review. Don't expect industry reference work!

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Last update: 19 October 2004