Alexander Sokurov’s award-winning film Faust is released in UK cinemas
Awe-inspiring – Ian Christie, Sight & Sound
No film this year knew more about the wonders of cinematography – Mark Cousins
Alexander Sokurov’s latest masterpiece Faust will be released in UK cinemas on 11 May. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival 2011, Faust completes Sokurov’s loose tetralogy on the lives of historical figures, which began with studies of Adolf Hitler (Moloch, 1999), Vladimir Lenin (Taurus, 2000) and Emperor Hirohito (The Sun, 2005). His new film delves deeper into the nature of power with a unique take on Goethe’s classic tale. Sokurov’s interpretation of the myth is not an adaptation in the usual sense, but what he describes as ‘a reading of what lies between the lines.’
Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Sokurov is one of Russia’s most well-known and internationally acclaimed film directors. Born in Siberia in 1951, he studied history at the University of Gorky before attending the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), where he met and befriended Andrei Tarkovsky. His graduation film 'The Lonely Voice of Man' (1978) was rejected by the school and the Soviet government and his films continued to be banned for nearly ten years. With support from the then exiled Tarkovsky, Sokurov's films were eventually granted screening permission in 1986. Since 1980 he has lived and worked in St. Petersburg, his award-winning films include Father and Son, Russian Ark and Alexandra.