RUSSIAN ARK Dir: Aleksandr Sokurov. Starring: Sergei Dontsov, Sergey Dreiden, Anna Aleksakhina, Maria Kuznetsova, Vladimir Baranov. Russian Ark is a truly rewarding cinema experience. At once paean and threnody, its dream-like, meandering structure effortlessly carries you through two centuries of Russia’s history, leaving you where? I’m not sure exactly, but what an enchanting, awe-inspiring place. An unnamed, unseen narrator ‘wakes up’ in St Petersburg’s Hermitage museum. Who is he? His only memories are of fire and an accident. When is he? People in period dress push past each other, but another room reveals latter-day crowds admiring Italian Masters. Ignored by the museum’s inhabitants, our narrator takes us on a mind-bending journey through the heart of the Hermitage, a living time capsule of Russia’s history. His only companion is a cynical French diplomat, one who has presumably made this trip before. But as the journey wears on, the diplomat’s world-weary façade begins to crack – as does the narrator’s – revealing underneath a humanity that has much in common with the museum’s own tumultuous history. I’ve sensed a disillusionment with this film from some quarters. People complain that its “gimmick” – the fact that the entire film is shot in one continuous take – is but a clever disguise for its complete lack of narrative and characterisation. Really, I couldn’t disagree more.
	Russian Ark is not Die Hard, with Cossacks and some vodka. The through-line –where it exists – is ghostly, and hard to follow. The pace is slow and illogical, but Sokurov is saying something profound here, not just about Russia, but about memory, life, and I think death as well. Unlike so many of his American brethren, this is not a director shouting “look at me”, or seeing just how wacky technique can get before an audience walks out. Leave that cold intellectualism to children like Gaspar Noe and Mike Figgis. This is more beautiful, demanding and delicate than those provocateurs could ever dream up. The challenge of Russian Ark is not its pace. It’s using that time to reflect and grasp a hold on the whirlwind of emotion and ideas that each room holds. Because currently it’s such a mess, it’s very easy to forget that Russia has an almost cloyingly rich history, both cinematic and political. Certainly the film’s elegiac tones mourn this passing, but the nostalgia is always undershot with the death, suffering, and pain that went with it. This is not the kind of pathetic mourning for yesteryear that Hollywood routinely barfs up. It’s organic, it’s holistic, and this makes interpretation both very rich and very personal. As the film ended on an image of incredible beauty and significance, I was really touched. It’s not for everybody, but if you’re prepared to challenge yourself, Russian Ark will reward you with an experience of pure cinema, both spectacle, homage, meditation and play. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I probably won’t again. I think that’s a good thing; like Russia’s history, this is a one-off, and you should not miss it. A+ Patrick Garson. Click here to discuss Russian Ark on our film forum.
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