23/05/2003 - An ambiguous relationship between father and son where time and place have no meaning is the Russian's latest experimental work

A past master at surprising everyone with the originality of his work, Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov managed to astound us once again with Père et Fils, screened in competition on 23 May.
The film disconcerted the audience and generated a wave of speculation amongst the Russian director’s fans as to what it really meant.
Enhanced with dreams and symbols, the story unfolds in an unknown place where time has no meaning and explores the relationship between a father and son who live in the same flat. Alexander Sokurov said that “the important thing is the interpersonal relationship that is also a perpetual one, because bloodlines are delicate and can, on occasion, have irreversible consequences.”
When journalists asked him to explain the almost incestuous relationship between the two men, set against a backdrop that Fassbinder would have been proud of, the filmmaker justified himself saying his work was "pure". A point of view that he then contradicted when he asked the audience not to “bring their personal complexes to a film that portrays a warm and tender relationship that was inspired by 19th century European and Russian literature.”
This is Sokurov’s fourth film to have been selected for the official competition, the preceding titles being Mère et Fils (1997), Moloch (best screenplay award in 1999) and Taurus in 2001. Père et Fils is the result of a huge pan-European co-production effort by Germany (Zéro Films), Russia (Nikola Film), France (Lumen Films), Italy (Mikado) and Holland (Isabella Film).

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(Translated from French)