Consisting of five long takes, this portrait of Lithuania during the Soviet economic blockade was shot in the streets of Vilnius and in the halls of Parliament—whose tense silence is broken by the haunting sounds of President Vitautis Landbergis performing Ciurlionis’s nocturnes on the piano.

Consisting of five long takes, this portrait of Lithuania during the Soviet economic blockade was shot in the streets of Vilnius and in the halls of Parliament—whose tense silence is broken by the haunting sounds of President Vitautis Landbergis performing Ciurlionis’s nocturnes on the piano.

This video portrait—a contemplative report from a solitary old house lost in the mountains in the village of Aska, Japan—creates a poetic image out of small details and the refined simplicity of Japanese life. An old woman lives alone, silently sewing kimonos, cooking and eating, kindling the fire, combing her hair, giving alms. As a final prayer she recites a sorrowful haiku about loneliness and loss. Pictures of nature and portraits of the old woman become intertwined with Japanese folk music and the melodies of Tchaikovsky as Sokurov reflects affectionately on Japanese culture and his own nostalgia for Russia.