Arquivo

This film is a contemplative report on an ancient, solitary house lost in the remote mountains of the village of Aska, in Japan. Revolving around the person of an old woman living alone, the director produces poetic images as from the small details and the refined simplicity of Japanese life. The woman spends her days busying herself with small tasks, silently stitching kimonos, cooking, eating, keeping the fire alight, combing her hair. With a final prayer, she recites a haicai, unadorned, on solitude and loss. With music from Japanese folklore and melodies from Tchaikovsky, Sokurov affectionately reflects on a culture thousands of years old in Japan and on his own feelings of nostalgia for his native Russia.