Last week, when the Russian film Mother and Son won the Grand Special Prize at the 20th Moscow International Film Festival, with a slew of other awards, including the Tarkovsky Fund Award for Best Direction, its director Alexander Sokurov was completely surprised. Indeed, Mother and Son was the last-minute addition to the list of 16 competition films, but it turned out to be a favourite with the jury, although they couldn't give the Golden St George prize for best picture to Sokurov. They made Mother and Son, according to many film critics, morally the winner of the film festival.``I never expected to win,'' said Sokurov after he was awarded the Tarkovsky golden branches and a heavy, white-marble elephant. ``It was truly an honour for such a modest film to receive this praise at such a film festival,'' he told journalists.Mother and Son is a poignant tale of a man coming to terms with his mother's fatal illness. The film's plot is easily described. A mother and her son are in a house out in the Russian wilderness, removed from all other humanity. The mother is very obviously ill and dying. Her son is taking care of her. Over the course of what seems like a day or two, he carries her on a walk around the countryside, brings her back home, puts her to bed and then goes on the same walk alone.He then comes back to the house and it gradually becomes clear that she has died while he was out. Here the film ends with a quiet gripping power.The film is very relevant to the current situation in Russia. The screen-writer Yuri Arbatov said the same at a press conference after the screening of the film.``In addition to the question of whether a son can live without his mother, there was also the question of whether or not we can live in a situation where our country is not completely alive,'' he added.Mother and Son may be called an `anti-thesis' of the American-style music and video influenced work. The film moves very slowly with most of its setting in the countryside. It has many scenes in which no action takes place, which has led to the criticism that it is a dull and tedious film.But regardless of the criticisms, Russian film producers have welcomed Mother and Son, calling it a shot in the arm for the crises-ridden film industry.
