Synopsis

The world’s best cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich, who passed away on 27th April this year, and Soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, who proved her recently discovered talent as an actress in Alexandra by Alexandre Sokurov, are a famous classical music couple in Russia. They invited royal families from many countries to splendidly celebrate the 50th anniversary of their marriage in 2005, and Sokurov decided to make a documentary about them. Their 50 years were full of ups and downs as famous as they were: they were prohibited from traveling abroad for 4 years from 1970 because they let Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn hide in their villa and sent a letter supporting him to a newspaper; finally, Rostropovich went to America with his family as an exile. Rostropovich played a concert for the spread of liberty in front of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and in the following year visited Moscow with the Washington National Symphony. It was 16 years since his exile to America. Sokurov serenely features their thoughts on music and love while observing the classical music couple together for 3 years in the midst of the big political upheavals of the late 20th century, as shown through their interviews and rehearsal scenes.

Director

Alexander Sokurov

Regarded as the spiritual successor to director Andrei Tarkovsky, Sokurov is one of Russia's most prominent filmmakers. Sokurov made his feature debut in 1987 with The Lonely Voice of Man and later won the Moscow Film Festival Jury Special Prize with Mother and Son (1996), the Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay Award with Moloch (1999), and the International Federation of Film Critics Award at Cannes with Father and Son (2003). He was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 59th Locarno International Film Festival. His recent works include Russian Ark (2002), Son (2005), and Alexandra (2007).