FAIRYTALE
O.V. in Georgian, German, Italian, English and French subtitled in English and Spanish
Hitler (Moloch, 1999), Lenin (Taurus, 2001) and Hirohito (The Sun, 2005): men who have wielded unbridled power throughout the 20th century are the protagonists of Alexander Sokurov's filmography. This time, he gathers several of them in front of the Gates of Heaven. Shot without the support of the Russian government, Fairytale takes the tradition of pictorial cinema and the use of new digital technologies to a new stage. Through an advanced use of deep fake, the ghosts of Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini and even Jesus Christ gain historical presence, explain gossip and recall their ideological premises in an unreal and Dantesque landscape, limbos drawn in the manner of a Dürer or a Piranesi on the ruins of old Europe. Amazing and disconcerting, we had not imagined that a film like Fairytale could exist.
Direction: Aleksandr Sokúrov
Screenplay: Aleksandr Sokurov
Music: Murat Kabardokov
Sound: Alexander Vanyukov
Production: Nikolay Yankin
Production company: Sokurov fund
Distributor: Intonations
Alexander Sokurov was born in Podorvikha, Rusia, in 1951, and today is one of the most prominent voices in contemporary cinema. Sokurov graduated from the Russian State University of Cinematography to then make his film debut, The Lonely Human Voice (1987), with the support of the film master Tarkovsky. Some titles of his extensive filmography are Russian Ark (2002) and Father and Son (winner of the Fipresci Award at Cannes 2003), as well as the tetralogy comprising Moloch (1999), Taurus (2000), The Sun (2004), and Faust (Golden Lion-winning at Venice in 2011). Sokurov’s films have earned him multiple acknowledgments in his career, such as the Leopard of Honour at Locarno, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the EFA, and the Nika Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017 by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science. Fairytale, which premiered at Locarno this 2022 after seven years, is his latest project.
