Part of the BAMcinématek series The Next Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Sun, May 13, 2012 at 6, 9pm
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
With Konstantin Lavronenko, Maria Bonnevie
(2007) 157min, 35mm
Loosely adapted from William Saroyan’s story Laughing Matter, The Banishment unveils languorously as a father with a shady past takes his wife and two children from their urban home and embarks on a trip to his childhood home in the Russian countryside. When his wife reveals that she is pregnant and that the baby belongs to someone else, he faces a moral dilemma verbalized by his criminal brother in starkly plain words: "If you want to kill, kill. If you want to forgive, forgive.” Confirming Zvyagintsev “as a director of world stature” (Daily Telegraph), his sublimely shot second feature was nominated for the Palme d’Or and netted the Cannes Best Actor prize for Lavronenko.
