Father and son (2003)

I watched Father and son in a state of half-sleep, after a long day of champagne and sun. This, I think, is the ideal state of mind for this movie. Even if my mind had been less foggy, I think I couldn't make much of the story. The film opens with a long, erotic scene in which a barely clothed father comforts his barely clothed son, who is having nightmares. The erotic tension between them continues. There is jealousy, fear of losing the other. The son is going through military training. The mother is absent. The boy has met a girl but we only see her through a window and standing on a balcony. It is the father-son relationship we see, and it seems to be all about quasi-religious bonds, depicted in religious language (a father must crucify his son! Tough love. I had a hard time developing a religious interpretation of the events in the film, even though there were clearly references to be picked up.) We see father and son at play on a rooftop. Their neighbor joins in - he wants to become them to form a trinity, but the others hesitate. The locations and the cinematography (a strange, soft light) of Father and Son are stunning, as always in Sokurov's films (esp. Mother and Son, to which this film is connected). The same can be said about the use of sound: Tchaikovsky, static noise, electronica. (I have read that Sokurov's own explication of the movie is all about rejecting homoeroticism and explaining how the film can provide a sense of moral edification.) To call Father and son opaque is an understatement. Still - it was a pleasure to watch it.