Their father Konstantin Lavronenko has long since departed the scene — until one day, completely out of the blue, he returns. When they reach their destination at a remote lake, events take an even more enigmatic turn…. In this hypnotic, stark movie, which won the Golden Lion grand prize of the last Venice Film Festival, we see a family strangely reunited: a father and his two sons traveling by car through the countryside after a year separation.
One of the boys, Andrei the late Vladimir Garin , is obedient. The other younger son, Ivan Ivan Dobronravov , is surly and rebellious. The father himself Konstantin Lavronenko is an ex-pilot whose abandonment of his family is never explained. Nor is his return. Taciturn, muscular, glowering with the intimidating self-confidence of a career soldier, he dominates the boys and the landscape.
As the three travel to a forest lake area on a fishing expedition, the tensions grow. Finally in the wilderness, on a ramshackle light tower that instills fear of falling in Ivan, they explode. Like many of the great Russian films, it has a mystical, poetic quality that invests the simplest scenes — walks through the forest, drives through the rain, the two boys fleeing through abandoned buildings — with power.
Quote: Every single moment of this film is a revelation. Zvyagintsev beautifully captures the opposite ways in which the boys react to and interact with their father. Andrei, the oldest, is so desperate for a father figure in his life that he is willing to overlook the often inexplicable, bizarre and possibly even dangerous behavior that this particular father exhibits. This film is religious in a form who must discover step by step. After a time it is more that a drama, remember about your father or your boys, about the family and memories of an old age but occasion to be honest.
May be a letter or a testimony , a photo or a tower, a boat in black wood or only way to home. A movie who must be see. It is enough! Suddenly Dad returns, from where we know not, and becomes a taciturn martinet to the boys carving out his place in the home from which he's been long estranged.
He takes the boys on a fishing trip This film lays it minimalistic ground work well but takes a full hour to do it. Then when it begins to get interesting it conjures up a single shocking scene and ka-put! Much heralded by the critics with good marks from the public as well, "The Return" in not fodder for the average film goer. It's subtitled and bleak minimalism with redeeming qualities so esoteric as to be missed by most.
It doesn't matter how well you cook a shoe, it's still going to be a shoe and "The Return" will be an unsatisfying meal for most. Buddy 21 February Astonishingly enough, this is the feature film debut for director Andrei Zvyagintsev who demonstrates more of a mastery and command of the medium in this his maiden effort than most directors do in a whole body of work.
The film tells the tale of two brothers, Ivan and Andrei, who live with their mother and grandmother in a small coastal village in Russia. One day, totally unexpectedly, the boys' father returns after a twelve-year absence. In an effort to make up for lost time, the dad decides to take his sons on a fishing trip, but, almost immediately, he begins to demonstrate disturbing tendencies towards domination and abuse. He also appears to be up to some sort of nefarious business operations to which neither we nor the boys are entirely privy.
Every single moment of this film is a revelation. Zvyagintsev beautifully captures the opposite ways in which the boys react to and interact with their father. Andrei, the oldest, is so desperate for a father figure in his life that he is willing to overlook the often inexplicable, bizarre and possibly even dangerous behavior that this particular father exhibits.
Ivan, on the other hand, embittered by years of absence and neglect, seethes with barely disguised rage at the man who now presumes to enter into their once happy lives and assert his authority. Of the two boys, he seems the most tuned into the kind of threat the father may pose to their welfare.
Yet, towards the end of the story, the apparently latent love the boy feels for this man as his father does eventually rise to the surface. Through this intense interaction, the film emerges as a complex and profound study of what father and son relationships are really all about. It is virtually impossible to put into words just how brilliantly the two young actors use their facial expressions to convey a wealth of meaning and emotion.
As portrayed by Vladimir Garin, Andrey looks up to his father with a mixture of boyish pride and trembling awe, longing for the kind of male affirmation he has been deprived of all these years. He is desperate to please his father by proving to him that he can perform the acts of manhood that his dad keeps putting forth for him to do. As Ivan, Ivan Dobronravov spends most of his time glaring at the man, his mouth pursed in a tight unyielding grimace of resentment and hate.
If I could give an award for the best performance by a child actor in movie history, these two youngsters would be high on my list of candidates. They are that amazing. Tragically, young Garin drowned two months prior to the release of the film, leaving his indelible mark behind in a performance that will never be forgotten by anyone privileged enough to witness it.
Konstantin Lavronenko is equally impressive as the boy's mysterious father, beautifully underplaying the part of a man who can appear sane and rational on the surface but who is a seething cauldron of untapped emotions beneath. In fact, it is this constant threat of violence always on the verge of eruption that keeps us off balance and on edge throughout the entire picture. The film's writers, Vladimir Moiseyenko and Aleksandr Novotosky, deserve special recognition for not allowing the plot to overwhelm the characters.
For this is, first and foremost, a great character study. The scenarists have intentionally left the background of the father vague and sketchy, the better to enhance the sense of mystery and danger he represents. We never find out what nefarious activities he is involved with since that is of virtually no importance either to the children or to us. We are too engrossed in the relationships of the characters to care. In fact, there are a few hints towards the end of the film that this seemingly cold, uncaring man, for all his myriad faults, might actually just love his sons in his own strange way.
The film leaves us with no easy answers or pat resolutions at the end. And this is how it should be. In fact, the scriptwriters even throw a few of Hitchcock's prized "MacGuffins" into the mix to keep us off balance there is a scene in which some possibly stolen money sinks to the bottom of a lake that is highly reminiscent of what happens in "Psycho".. Among other things, "The Return" represents one of the most impressive directorial debuts since Francois Truffaut's "The Blows.
His lyrical use of composition, as well as the way in which he makes nature and weather an integral part of his drama help to draw us so deeply into this world that it takes the viewer literally hours to get fully back to his own existence again once the movie has ended.
It reverberates for days afterwards. For as with any great film, "The Return" finds its way into the depths of one's soul and leaves the viewer a richer person for the experience. Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival , "The Return" is a true work of art and one of the outstanding films of the decade so far.
Whatever you do, don't miss this film. When spoilt mother's boys Andrey and Ivan's long lost father returns home, the boys are not over enamoured with their new parent, in no small part due to his somewhat macho attitude to fatherhood.
But is he merely trying to teach them a lesson in tough love, or is he, as they begin to suspect, a gangster? Andrei Zyangintsev's movie 'The Return' is superbly acted and beautifully shot, the flat Russian landscape plays a big part in the story - rarely do you see a film where the horizon is so perpetually apparent - and a mood of terrible foreboding soon settles upon the protagonists, although the story never goes exactly where you expect it to.
The sparse, naturalistic tone reminded me somewhat of early Kieslowski; the film was deservedly credited at Venice. MOscarbradley 18 January From Russia, another of cinema's great debuts.
Andrey Zvyagintsev's "The Return" is another harsh, unsentimental and, I suppose, decidedly Russain look at childhood, from Donskoi to Tarkovsky Russian cinema has always handled the theme of childhood beautifully.
Here, an absent father shows up unexpectedly after twelve years as if out of nowhere to take his two young sons on a fishing trip. What's the reasoning behind it? Where is the connection? As he went on to show in his later films, Zvyagintsev is a consumate film-maker with an exquisite eye for landscape; the places in his films are as much characters as the people and "The Return" is an incredible looking film.
He's also a great director of children, drawing superb performances from Vladimir Garin, who tragically drowned the year "The Return" was made, at the age of sixteen , and Ivan Dobronravov as the two brothers; you really get a feeling they are related and not merely acting. As their father, Konstantin Lavronenko is a taciturn, mysterious presence. Part thriller, part family drama "The Return" makes for challenging, demanding viewing and in its unsentimental way is often very moving.
A key work of 21st century cinema thus far. You know that you deal with a masterpiece since the opening scenes of 'Return'. The cinematography of this film is special - light is filtered in metallic nuances, and gray, blue and green seem to be the only colors in Andrei Zvyagintsev's universe. The landscape is the desolation of post-Communist Russia, with skeleton's of industrial structures remained without goal and usage, swallowed back by non-exuberant natural wilderness.
It is in this universe that we meet the two children brothers, reading an unhappy pre-teen age at then end of a childhood that seems to be without too many joys, or even toys. And then the father returns, the father who was away foe many years, we do not know why he left, or why he comes back.
The father will take the two sons in what starts to be a fishing trip, but turns into a seven days making of their world trip.
The film seems to be about the uneasy relation between father and sons, and about the coming to age of the children, and it plays well in this space, with fine acting and a touch of mystery and tension that catches you while seeing the film, and does not live you long after screening is finished.
It is however a much more complex movie, and it can be read into many layers. One is of the religious symbols, with a plethora of reversed symbols - it is the prodigal father who returns, it is he who sacrifices himself, and not the sons as in the biblical stories of Isaac and Jesus.
Another possible level of reading this movie is of the renewing Russia. Renewing, but how - in obedience as the elder son is behaving, or in rebellion, as the path taken by the younger son. Hard to describe in words such a film. A simple story, basic directing tools but such a richness of sentiments, and such a variety of thoughts that seeing this film triggers.
Andrei Zvyagintsev may be at his fist film, and 'The Return' stands at the same level of complexity as the masterpieces of Tarkowsky and Mihalkov. A man returns to his family after a year absence and tries to connect with his two sons. It gets off to a somewhat intriguing start as the return is shrouded in mystery. Although the pacing is deliberate, the early scenes between the father and the sons are fairly well done, with tension mounting in their relationships.
As the three make their way through the wilderness, one expects a journey of enlightenment and resolution of conflicts. Instead one has to keep asking, "Are we there yet? The acting is not bad, especially by the two youngsters, and the cinematography is nice.
Unfortunately, it's a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go. Spoiler warning!!! Even without trying really hard, I was able to identify well over a dozen films that are in both.
Out of these, I picked The Return to watch. What attracts me most is the mention of the Russian landscape. Now to the film. After an absence of 12 years, a father, purportedly a pilot, returns unannounced to his family. The two teenage boys, whose normal life does not include a father, are at a bit of a loss how to handle the situation.
With only their mother's word that this stranger is indeed their father, they look up from the attic an old family photo, to confirm to themselves that it is indeed so. Still a little bemused, the duo cannot hide their delight when they are brought to understand that this man, their father, that is, is going to take them on a camping trip up north.
The rest of the film is about this journey both on land and over water which is not exactly as mystical as Captain Bejamin L. Willard's up a river in Vietnam Apocalypse Now.
While we are not given a great deal of information about the father some say it's deliberately withheld, with which I do not necessarily agree , there is nothing wrong with assuming that due to security reasons he may well be a military pilot , he simply has not been allowed to communicate normally with his family. What he is now trying to do is to take advantage of this window, regardless of how it becomes available, to do what fathers are supposed to do, to impart upon his children things that will be helpful in their development and maturing.
This is as simple and natural as breathing and every father who has sons understand that. The father, despite some of his seemingly inexplicable action, is really the most consistent and predictable character. When he answers the boys' question by saying that it's their mother's idea that he should spend some time with them, the boys press him by asking if this is what he wants too.
I think he does not directly answer the question but it is obvious that he wants to, and he wants them to know that he wants to. More interesting is the oscillation of force for want of a better word between the two sons. Andrey Vladimir Garin , the older son, is appeasing right from the very beginning, showing no sign of resentment of his father who has never been part of his life, until this sudden intrusion. It's the younger son Ivan played by Ivan Dobronravov, who bears an uncanny resemblance of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense who is the rebel struggling between denial and acceptance of this man claiming to be the father he must have secretly longed for.
This balance is maintained until the traumatic event at the end, when Andrey develops, or matures, into the leadership role, whether he likes it or not. His anger dissipated, Ivan now looks towards his older brother as the father figure.
The film ends by showing the audience some of the photographs black and white we saw the boys took during the trip, picture that flows with jubilation. While the father does not appear in any of the pictures, it is quite obvious that he took the ones in which the happy faces of both boys appear.
Looking at the photos, one would not have guessed the undercurrent that shadowed the trip, still less its abrupt, tragic conclusion. The father does appear in the last picture which, however, is not from this trip, but rather from 12 years ago, showing him carrying infant Ivan in his arms.
Even more brilliantly used are another two photographs, seen through the eyes of the boys this time. I mentioned the first one, which the boys look up in the attic to confirm that this man is indeed their father.
The second one they find at the end of the film, tucked away in the sunshade of their father's car. This photo is almost exactly like the first one, except for one thing: it shows only the mother and the two boys, without the father. The Return is a film so rich in imagery and symbolism that I am reluctant to do anything here other than reporting what the screen and soundtrack show.
Returning to the landscape, not even perfectly flawless cinematography can come close to substituting the experience of standing on the northern shore of Lake Superior, looking south into its awe-inspiring splendour, with the rugged, expansive, northern landscape behind you.
It stays with you for the rest of your life. Two teenage boys raised by their mother and grandmother in the absence of their father. They just try to replace that father figure with their connection to the group of teenage boys who challenge one another with dares and who play football, and eventually settle their disagreements with some good old fist fights. The younger brother; Ivan, tries to be up to his elder brother, Andrei, but he can't and needs his mother to settle his identity search.
The mother and her love-solace. Cain and Abem are not far from this situation, the rivalry between two brothers, a dramatic rivalry whose victim is the younger one. But the film breaks that background into a far more tragic outcome. The father comes back after twelve years of absence.
And he decides to take them on a fishing trip in the back country. But they do not know how to react to a father. They check his identity with old pictures and they have to accept their mother's word too. But it goes both all wrong and all right. All right because the elder son sticks to his father and tries to share this attachment with his younger brother, the two remaining close and sort of non-antagonistic though quite differently-minded allies.
All wrong because the father plants a wedge between the two brothers and the younger one develops a systematic and very vocal hostility. The father will not be able to conquer him and in fact this younger brother will lead the elder one into not respecting a rule decided by the father and that will mean some harsh punishment for the elder one and the final peripetian culmination.
The trip that should have lasted one or two days turns into one week. And the situation gets worse and worse to the point when the younger one dares his father with a knife and runs away to the top of a lighthouse and the father will come tumbling down from the top to the sand below. And the return of the father to his sons will become the return of the sons with the father's body to the mother, at first, and then without the father's body, in the crucial moment when they should have loaded him in the homebound car.
That ending is an epiphany though because the younger brother will learn then to call after his "papa" or his dad, a word he had refused to use very stubbornly till that last moment.
The father had in a way succeeded but he will remain a trauma in the memory of the two boys, for ever and ever. A beautiful story about fatherhood and teenage especially because it is tragic, dramatic, traumatic.
I guess fathers can often be that, carry in them this authority figure that is more frightening than radiating solace and love. And yet this authority is love, fatherly love and a child needs in their immediate environment these two sorts of love that have been systematically — and wrongly — associated to mother and father. These two loves are love-solace and love-authority. Things become wrong when one of the two or even both is or are missing. Children then look for substitutes and that can lead to dramatic situations, including the refusal of this love or these loves when they are encountered.
Then the return is a return to reality with a trauma in your mind. Red 18 April The Russian film Vozvrashcheniye was shown in the U. It was directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev. He found Vladimir Garin in St. Petersburg and Ivan Dobronravov in Moscow, picking them from over contenders. Goofs On the island, Ivan bandages his hand after it gets injured. In the next shot, the bandage is on his other hand.
Quotes [last lines] Ivan : Look User reviews Review. Top review. Brilliant--yet not a work on par with a Tarkovsky or a Kozintsev. Hollywood with the exception of Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Mallick is dwarfed in the company of these giants. Andrei Zvyagintsev follows in the footsteps of these giants. The opening shots remind you of Tarkovsky and the bleak, barren landscapes of Kozintsev.
Yet "The Return" with all its finesse and depth of subject matter does not hold a candle to the works of the four aforementioned Soviet filmmakers. I was fortunate to see the film at the Dubai film festival yesterday.
At the most easy level, the film can be interpreted as a chronicle of two children chronicling with a help of a diary written by two male siblings the events of a week with their father that facilitates their transformation from childhood to manhood metaphorically.
At a more complex level, the film can also be interpreted as a political film--with the father figure representing the strong Communist USSR and the death of that state. The two sons can be interpreted as one representing the section that accepted subjugation by the state and the other that rebelled against the state and demanded freedom and democracy.
At yet another level, the film provides the option of being interpreted in religious terms. Is the father figure any different from Christ coming to the world to help the world, and die in the process to be accepted by those who believe and don't believe.
The film is scattered with clues that afford this interpretation: the fish symbol, the storm in the sea, the walking on water by the boys on a stone below the water line , the week ends on Sunday the day of Resurrection , the late return by the boys and the rebukes that follow Jesus admonishing disciples for falling asleep , acceptance through death, the first sight of the father lying asleep resembling a crucified and dead Jesus, the last supper at home , the baptism by rain, is Andrei the elder boy named after apostle Andrew, the leaves under the car as palm leaves for Jesus entry into Jerusalem One reason is that most Russians are deeply religious individuals.
At the same time one could argue that all these were coincidences and there is no Biblical reference in the film. The brilliance of "The return" and the films of the other four Russian directors are outstanding because they too could be entertaining at different levels and thus appeal to you 50 to 80 years after they were made.
The sudden rains, the sound of trains are not new--Tarkovsky used these effects in "Stalker. The film is in color--yet the colors are muted with only the red car standing out.
Kozintsev refused to film "Hamlet" and "King Lear" in color; Tarkovsky also used muted colors and sepia tints often. The most jarring fact is that the young actor who played the elder brother died in the very lake months after the film was made. The stark, spartan, evocative film deserved the Golden Lion at Venice film festival awarded this year.
By a coincidence, precisely 40 years ago Venice had honored Kozintsev's "Hamlet"! The brilliance of "The Return" is all pervasive--acting, direction, photography, editing, screenplay and yet the film is not as great as a Tarkovsky or a Kozintsev. JuguAbraham Dec 11, FAQ 1. What does the metal box contain that the father puts on the boat?
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