The unyielding love of a grandmother mixes with a fierce sense of righteousness in Alexandra. This stark new Russian film reveals an uncompromising look at an army at war, even if that conflict is never properly identified.

Cinema Guild

Galina Vishnevskaya stars as a determined grandmother in Alexander Sokurov’s Alexandra.

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Renowned Russian opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya (and widow of celebrated cellist/
conductor Mstislav Rostropovich) plays Alexandra Nikolaevna, a gray-haired, seemingly destitute peasant. She travels from somewhere in mainland Russia to the Chechen border, although the precise location is never conveyed on screen.

Alexandra seems at ease, whether on a train full of soldiers, or when she arrives at a sunny, dusty military outpost. There, she sees her grandson Denis (Vasily Shevtsov) for the first time in seven years.

It’s understandable that Western audiences might find odd the prospect of an elderly woman visiting her grandson on the front lines. But it’s obviously standard practice in Russia because Alexandra’s presence is never regarded as unusual.

Once there, she makes herself at home, as writer/director Alexander Sokurov proceeds to depict the substandard conditions of his country’s military. These deficiencies come primarily in the forms of the angry soldiers who have neither money nor ample food.

The veteran Russian director introduces Alexandra traveling across the country alone, immediately painting her as a strong figure. Sokurov excels in showing her independence, as she handles the guns, watches them being cleaned, rides in the tanks, and talks to the guards. She instructs every soldier she meets to bathe more often. 

In time, Sokurov eases in his anti-war sentiments, letting Alexandra serve as his conscience. At one point, Alex­andra lectures her grandson, “You can destroy. When will you learn to rebuild?”

Later, she becomes a symbol of friendship, as she travels to a nearby village where many of the presumably Chechen natives hold a bitter hate for the occupying Russian soldiers. But, once there, she befriends a small group of women with whom she finds a warm universality.

Alexandra is minimalist filmmaking, with its use of natural light to depict a meandering narrative lacking in tension or suspense.

Sokurov makes no artificial attempts to brighten his film. The camp, the surroundings and even the costumes are bathed in gray, with hardly a flash of color in the entire film. Or in the bleak Russian world we see.

Alexandra

** 1/2

Not rated, 95 minutes.
Opens Friday at the Angelika Dallas.