Synopsis
Alexander Sokurov's 'Russian Ark' is generally acclaimed as a milestone in cinematography. In this film Sokurov reversed the idea of montage, creating instead the sensation of an uninterrupted flow of time encompassing three centuries of Russia's cultural history through a single, 90-minute take. Yet this film is but one milestone in the work of this versatile director. Since the 1990s, Sokurov's films have had international recognition at film festivals and through foreign distribution. In this, the first English-language book to cover Sokurov's full oeuvre, leading scholars on Sokurov unravel his work on documentaries; his early films and literary adaptations; his trilogy on leaders focussing on the decaying body; his films on passing youth and approaching age; and, of course, 'Russian Ark'. The book also provides samples of the major Russian-language studies of Sokurov's films to provide the reader with an insight into Russian approaches to Sokurov.
About the Author
Birgit Beumers is Professor Emerita in Film Studies at Aberystwyth University, UK, and currently holds a DFG-funded research grant on Central Asian film industries at the University of Passau, Germany. Her publications include A History of Russian Cinema (2009) and Performing Violence (with Mark Lipovetsky, 2009). She has edited a number of volumes, including The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov (2011, with Nancy Condee), and Cinema in Central Asia: Rewriting Cultural Histories (with Michael Rouland and Gulnara Abikeyeva, 2013), and Sexuality, Nudity and the Body in Soviet Cinema (with Eugénie Zvonkine and Catherine Géry, 2026). She is editor of the online journal KinoKultura and of the scholarly journal Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema.
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