Mat i Syn

Mother and Son is a 1997 Russian film directed by Aleksandr Sokurov ,  depicting a relationship between an old dying mother and her young son.  It depicts one-day  in the life of a grown son and his elderly,ailing mother.  The son must gently lift his mother and carry her from place to place.   Their speech is slow and heavy , as though even the act of speaking has become an effort for them.   Forget speaking-even breathing is an effort for both mother and son ,so heavy does their existence weigh upon them. From time to time, there is a far away train or a sail on the sea , emphasizing further their isolation from the rest of the world. It is difficult to find a film that has captured the sense of intimacy and communion between a parent and an adult child.  Everything happens slowly in Mother and Son .  Sokurov introduces a shot , and instead of cutting quickly to another angle , holds it on the screen, inviting us to feast on the image to find our own dreams and meditations and yardstick inside it , to perhaps recall our own parent-child  relationships.  Sokurov distorts his images to suggest the heightened , dreamlike reality of the dying mother and son. While the dialogue is kept to an absolute minimum , the soundtrack is extremely expressive and is an essential element of the work- the wind, the sea,  the "music" of the earth , provide a brilliant counterpoint and commentary to what is seen.