The Banishment
An impressive temporary stint as a TV series Director between acting jobs led to the series Producer encouraging Andrei Zvyagintsev to direct a feature film. The result - The Return - was received to wide acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, despite the Russian director, then verging on middle age, being virtually unknown.
His audacious début prompted some critics to question whether Zvyagintsev could sustain his success with subsequent films. Any doubts on their part should surely have been dispelled with the release of his second feature film, The Banishment.
Zvyagintsev’s second feature is a beautiful, haunting and stylish exploration of the contemporary Russian male psyche. A trip to the countryside proves to be more than a holiday for the family of a man who has been leading a less than exemplary life. As they settle in to their country cottage, it becomes apparent that all is not as it should be: what appears to be a family holiday may actually be a means of escape, and with some form of betrayal.
This is a visually stunning film. The steely, cold blue hues of the urban streets give way to winding roads wending through the undulating countryside, somewhat reminiscent of the films of Kiarostami, while the stealthy plot devices evoke the cinema of Michael Haneke.
While never dilatory, The Banishsment’s pace is admittedly slow, but mesmerising and immensely rewarding for the patient viewer.
Russia’s recent transformation has resulted in massive economic and social change whose effects we are now seeing captured in film. As such, The Banishment is a revealing study of the proud Russian male psyche and subsequent isolation in precarious times.