Aleksandr Sokurov Fables against war (1)

The military world in the former USSR is one of Aleksandr Sokurov’s ongoing interests, both due to his autobiographical connections to the subject (his childhood was spent following the postings of his father, a soldier in the Soviet army) and because it was one of the principal institutions that, for decades, marked the lives of a large part of the Russian population. Spiritual Voices. From the Diaries of a War is one of his works that revolve around military life, a timeless and elegiac diary filmed on the battlefield. In 1994, Sokurov accompanied Russian troops assigned to a frontier military post at the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. The result was a 327-minute cinematic meditation on the war and the spirit of the Russian army. Fear never leaves the faces of the young soldiers. With his camera, Sokurov captures their physical toil and their mental desolation, as well as daily rituals such as meals, sharing tobacco, writing letters and cleaning duties.