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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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The Second Circle (1990)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Bury Me Not

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Second Circle on DVD

This early film by Alexander Sokurov touches on themes he would later explore in Mother and Son (1997) and Father and Son (2004). A young man arrives in a Serbian village to claim his father's body and spends the rest of the film dealing with the horrific red tape required. Sokurov's tight, grungy angles vaguely suggest a womblike entrapment in which a son struggles to free himself of a parent, but the film also touches on contemporary Russian politics. The brownish, monochrome color scheme lacks the transcendent beauty of Sokurov's later films, and it can be tough going, but it also has the mark of a master.

DVD Details: Kino's 2006 DVD release presents a new director's cut with a few shots restored. Extras include notes on the restoration and a stills gallery.

Starring: Pyotor Aleksandrov, Nadezhda Rodnova, Tamara Timofeyeva, Aleksandr Bystryakov
Written by: Yuri Arabov
Directed by: Alexander Sokurov
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Russian with English subtitles
Running Time: 85 minutes
Date: May 14, 2006