By V.A. MUSETTO
Rating: 
March 26, 2008
'ALEXANDRA," by Russian director-writer Alexander Sokurov, opens with a gray-haired lady riding in an armored train and then, subsequently, a military tank. Slowly we discover that the woman, Alexandra, is on her way to visit her grandson ("my little Denis"), a 27-year-old army captain at a lonely military post in Chechnya.
She's eager for a family reunion and a rare, firsthand look at military life. She tours the base, where she bonds with bored soldiers; they set a table for her dinner, complete with flowers and a tablecloth. When she visits a nearby village, she brings back cookies and cigarettes for the troops, who are as intrigued with her as she is with them.
Pieces of her life are revealed: Her husband - "He was cruel. He shouted all the time," she confesses - died two years earlier, and she has not seen Denis for seven years. Otherwise, the woman's journey is uneventful. Not a single shot is fired, and the enemy is never seen.
Sokurov is a critics' favorite ("Alexandra" was part of the 2007 New York Film Festival) whose 2002 "Russian Ark," a glittering tour of the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, was shot in one continuous take. I gave it four stars when it screened here.
"Alexandra" is a much more modest undertaking, but is just as compelling. And Galina Vishnevskaya, an 81-year-old opera singer, is wonderful as Alexandra.
ALEXANDRA
In Russian, with English subtitles. Running time: 92 minutes. Not rated (nothing objectionable). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.
