Arquivo / 49ª mostra

The sixth part of the group of Elegy, this documentary consists of five long plane-sequences to convey a picture of Lithuania during the period of economic blockade imposed by Russia. Filmed in the streets of Vilna and in the halls of the parliament, the heavy silence that pervades A Simple Elegy is broken only by the astonishing chords issuing from the piano of President Vitautas Landsbergis locked in his offices, immersed in deep meditation, playing the “Nocturns” by Ciurlionis, a famous Russian composer. The shouts from the mob, a second character in the film, that Sokúrov introduces as interacting with the President, resound from the outside. “Landsbergis was given a classical education and became an erudite man, a historian of culture and music. Perhaps every nation should have, at its head, a statesman with these characteristics”, says Sokúrov.