A Russian poet and his interpreter travel to Italy researching the life of an 18th-century composer, and instead meet a ruminative madman who tells the poet how the world may be saved.
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To investigate the life of Russian composer Pavel Sosnovsky, Andrei Gorkachov (Oleg Yankovsky) goes to Italy, where Sosnovsky resided before his suicide. Joining Gorkachov on his journey through Tuscany is his interpreter, Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano), who develops an interest in her client that is more than professional. Meanwhile, Gorkachov is beset by powerful feelings of homesickness as he wanders through the ruins of the countryside and meets a doomsaying mystic (Erland Josephson).
Presented as part of our Talking Pictures series. Join filmmaker Terrance Odette and film programmer Wendy Guymer-Tutt for a post-screening discussion!
"A hauntingly beautiful film." - Empire Magazine
"Stick with it. There are shocking acts that rupture the stillness, and then there's one of cinema's great endings, a wrenching, rapturous scene that would set both of those poets into embarrassed rewrites." - Village Voice
"Aims for a hushed, hypnotic, incantatory effect, and it does succeed in inducing some kind of trance." - Chicago Reader