This requiem in memory of Maria—a Russian peasant woman who has grown flax in the traditional manner all her life—is told in two chapters. The first, in color, creates a pastoral atmosphere around Maria’s life as she works in the fields, bathes in a stream, takes a vacation in the Crimea. The second, in black and white, takes place nine years later: Maria has died and the traditions by which she lived have been lost.

This personal essay on the the work of French painter Hubert Robert (1733–1808) begins with scenes from a Japanese play filmed in slow motion. Robert’s pictorial world unfolds as we enter landscapes, grandiose architectures, and ruins— until a “meeting” between Sokurov and Robert incorporates the painter’s work within the filmmaker’s own. With a sound track of music by Albinonni, Glinka, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky combined with the sounds of storms, rain, and birds, the film evokes the mysterious links between biography and autobiography.