Russian Ark Official Trailer

Alexander Sokurovs spellbinding masterpiece, RussianArk is a multiaward winning film consisting of one unbroken camera shot that moves through St. Petersburgs Hermitage Museum. Its a staggering work of art, an impressive technical feat that is also cinematic poetry of the first order. As Sokurovs camera glides through 33 rooms of the Hermitage, moving in and out of cathedrallike galleries, opulent ballrooms and shadowy corridors and workrooms, three centuries of Russian history and European art are compressed into a single 96 minute shot. In the dreamlike journey, an unseen modern filmmaker (voiced by Sokurov) is joined by a somewhat scornful French diplomat, the Marquis de Custine (Sergey Dreiden). We see the great paintings of El Greco, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens and others in the Hermitage treasure trove, discussed by the Marquis and other aficionados. At the same time, as if in a nightmare, we keep getting glimpses of Russian history: Peter the Great manhandling a general; Russias last Czar, N