The Banishment

A Russian film set in the countryside. Alex takes his family to the house where he grew up. It is far from the city, among hills, with nobody around. A few days after they settle in, his wife Vera tells him something: she is pregnant and the child is not his. Alex does not react. He goes quietly outside, calls his brother and they discuss what to do. The decisions are taken between the men; the woman is not asked again. What the film describes is not the betrayal but how not speaking turns into a catastrophe. Nobody completes a sentence, everyone knows something and nobody asks. As the narrative goes on it emerges that what was said was incomplete, and the whole of it appears only at the end. The photography is the strongest thing: wide landscapes, empty rooms, long silences and almost no music. The scenes are held long on purpose. The source is a novel by William Saroyan. Konstantin Lavronenko plays Alex and took the best actor prize at Cannes. Maria Bonnevie plays Vera. Andrey Zvyagintsev directed. A strong production for anyone who likes slow cinema and heavy family drama. For a viewer expecting pace, it runs close to two and a half hours and most of the events stay off screen.