is obvious, this is an indescribable but irresistible film about love, loss and coming of age. Director Andrei Sajinsev refused to answer questions from the media after the film won various awards, arguing that his interpretation would affect the audience's perception of the film and limit their imagination. He once pointed out that the story uses an allegory to look at the situation of life. As long as the audience appreciates it in this direction, they will surely see the real meaning.
This film is not about family love, but about the life and death of a belief, especially in the background after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the whole nation has a gray-blue tone in the film. Rivers, forests, pauses, silences, moving long shots, these prominent symbols of Russian literary and artistic films permeate the film, highlighting the icy water-like separation between the boy and his father. This kind of separation is a kind of long-term confrontation. The special character formed naturally due to the extension of time and the process of growth, it is this unique character that makes the tragedy happen. As for the father who has never met for twelve years, the proof of his existence is also looming with time and growth, but it has a deep-rooted impact on the child's heart.
From the beginning to the end, the film is laid out in dark blue, like a hidden language, slowly infiltrating the actor's world, and logically arousing the audience's emotions, becoming the "pattern" of the story, and encircling all the characters in this obscure and blurred world. world. The appearance of the father is mysterious and paradoxical, with a burly and serious image, representing the majesty and domineering that the male world should have. The mother, on the contrary, carefully defends the family behind her father, giving her child meticulous care and courage at all times. Andrei yearns and admires the role of his father, while Ivan relies on and needs the presence of his mother.
The father took his son to travel for a total of seven days, like the creation of the Lord, leading the boy to realize the return of the birth and growth of a spiritual man in the way of divine revelation. And his death, like a fragile branch, was easily broken, sank into the sea, and disappeared. The two children witnessed the death of their father and felt the majestic power of life from their hearts. In fact, when his father chased Ivan to the top of the tower, Ivan had overcome his inner fear and cowardice and grew into a man. On the other hand, when he witnessed his father's death because of himself, he felt the father's love at the bloodline level. It did not weaken with time, did not waver with prejudice, and did not change with migration. Shouting out "Dad" is the deeper consolidation of growing up as a man.
This is the only way to learn to grow on the way to the inexplicable island. In just seven days, God created the world, and the father shaped the son. The emotional changes between the father and the son are the clues. On the island that leads to family affection, all sides are lonely, and the meaning of father's love is determined by inner inspection. Films often create a visual conception of people's main scenes, emphasizing the hardness of the characters, and rendering the sense of visual loneliness. Characters in a lonely blue space will appear extraordinarily alone. But the uniqueness and emptiness of the scene just reflect another kind of beauty, pure and unsullied in the soul, clarifying the sacred, and the power of a person who is not dominated by all things. This is the image of the father, the incarnation of God, ethereal and illusory.
One of the sons, Ivan, takes his name directly from Andrei Tarkovsky's "Ivan's Childhood", and the other son's name is the name of the great director. Both films are about the growth of children and the return of their hearts, which are interesting in the history of film.
The death of the father in the film symbolizes the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the different attitudes of the two sons signify political disputes. With the passage of time, the Russians finally cut their sharp eyes and objectively reflected on the upheaval. The ending of "Return" is a positive point. It implies to us that the former Soviet Union will always be the root of Russia in spirit, and the nirvana of the collapse of the Soviet Union did not burn the inner qualities. The two children may not know that behind their father's arrogance, they have learned what their father wants to pass on to their offspring. This search for roots is undoubtedly a ray of hope for socialist countries.
One year after the film opened, the genius child star drowned. The director became an instant hit because of this Virgo, and the father disappeared from the photo in the film, the mysterious sack and wooden box, an unknown phone call, and the mother never told about the father. Things, all this is unknowable, and it is also the fruit of fate. The most crucial lesson of a boy's growth into a man is the elastic change between the thoughts in his heart and the unexpected ending. Perhaps the father who did not arrive, or the father who returned after leaving for twelve years, is not important. Ivan's sharp edges and corners will gradually smooth out over time, and Andre will take on the heavy responsibility of the whole family like a father, and all this is fate, it is quiet, but it is very important.
Russian movies have always used calm shots to tell the heavy life. Ivan's rebellion and disobedience on the road is a continuation of the Oedipus plot. There are countless such films in history, but Andrei Sajinsev added another protagonist - Ender in this film. strong. At the beginning of the film, Ivan was on the high platform, shivering, and did not dare to follow his brother Andre's jump into the lake and was laughed at by everyone, including Andre. The camera has always been looking upwards, depicting Ivan's expression when looking up, and when his father died, the camera followed Ivan's subjective perspective and kept rushing down. Looking down, it was his father's body, which was so insignificant compared to the wide realm. This before-and-after comparison is the focus of the film. The beginning of the seemingly peaceful but already caused conflict is between Ivan and Andrei, the arrival of the climax, the end of an image, symbolizing the end of this struggle. The image of Fuquan has been established and improved, and the matriarchal complex has finally been replaced by conquest and arrogance that cannot be ignored.
Parting has always been one of the decisive factors in the achievement of an immortal tragedy. My father disappeared twelve years ago and has not been heard from since. For the whole family, it has become the trigger for the birth of the tragedy. Seneca said we have nothing but time. The distance of twelve years has far exceeded the physical barrier. While waiting, the mother is desperate, the child grows, and the concept of father has been washed away by time. Returning again, it is just a "father" on the surface, and the inner implication is something that the children cannot understand. Returning to the family from the unfamiliar island, the children's hearts can be hardened, and they can obtain spiritual wealth from their fathers - commitment will be the foundation for reshaping their characters.
In the beginning there was a word, and the word was God. The return of the father, the return of the child, and the return of the family, the gains and losses in the process make the film's philosophical significance.
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