Alexandra (2007)

Alexandr Sokurov being one of my favourite directors, I expected Alexandra to be something special. Well, it turned out it was, sort of, but for all its originality, I would still not say Alexandra is a very good film. Even though thematically, this is a peculiar film, I constantly felt that the material could have been developed in a far more ingenious way. Something kept bugging me, though I have a hard time defining exactly what it was. The story: Alexandra, an elderly woman (played by a famous opera performerGalina Vishnevskaya), goes to a military camp in Chechnya to visit her son. She talks to him about various things, she explores the dusty and ramshackle surroundings. Sokurov undoubtedly has a way with portraying tenderness where we don’t expect to find it. How often do we see images of a tattooed soldier combing his grandmother’s hair? Not too often (the only film that comes to mind is Claire Denis’ Beau travail). This is what makes the film fascinating. Alexandra has very little to do with the stereotypical picture of Alpha-male soldiers doing everything to impress each other by means of bravura and sex stories. Alexandra is another world in comparison to most depictions of the army. Sokurov evokes untraditional images of the soldier: the frail boy, the everyday routines, curious looks without further intentions, innocence. The physical and spiritual authority of Alexandra is equally unconventional. She is not your typical grandmother figure.

The drab cinematography (the use of harsh light and almost-monochrome colors) works fine, there are a few striking scenes, and the angle is, as I said, very fresh. Well, on the other hand, the dialogue was, overall, an embarrassing and pompous affair.  The point of several turns in the story leaves me in the dark. Alexandra goes to the marketplace. She intends to buy cigarettes and biscuits for some soldiers. She ends up visiting one lady’s apartment. They have repellent tea, and it is as if they have always known each other. There is hostility in the way Alexandra is treated by the people she meets outside the base, but it is not brought to the surface. That’s why the apartment scene puzzled me. What was the intention? Well, there is something that worries me here; that the war seems so far away. The soldiers go away on missions, but still, we see very little of it, despite the devastation of the town. But maybe that’s the point? Instead of squadrons of soldiers on the front, we see grandmother and grandson climb into an armored vehicle. The grandson lets his grandmother try the Kalashnikov. It’s so easy, she remarks. We can feel her shudder of unease. Alexandra is our key to the military base. We see it through her eyes. We experience the smells, the taste of food, the bothering heat, the way she does. To her, all this is new. So – what we see in this film is an outsider’s perspective, an outsider for whom this is not everyday business. This may be an important point of view. 

OK – Let’s be honest. Maybe the reason why I’m feeling uncomfortable is that somewhere in this film, there are hints of bigger notions about Russia, Mother. That I kept thinking about it is perhaps only due to the fact that I’ve read Sokurov’s description of his own film. But the more I think about this film, I want to re-watch it to see whether perhaps some of my judgments were perhaps hasty.