Dialogue: Alexander Sokurov

A visionary filmmaker often favorably compared with legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky (1972's "Solaris," etc.) whose 30-year career encompasses Soviet suppression, the freedoms of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and the challenges of the near-collapse of the Russian film industry post-Soviet Union, Alexander Sokurov is nothing if not an iconoclast. His visionary and versatile use of the camera, light and dark, action and inaction on subjects ranging from a man's return from death to the cynical world of the living ("The Lonely Voice of Man") to the almost inexplicable emotional tour-de-force of "Russian Ark" -- shot in one, continuous 96-minute take in St. Petersburg's Winter Palace -- can thrill, devastate and at times bore viewers and critics alike. But if what he says about this year's In Competition film "Alexandra" is anything to go by, it seems for the moment that Sokurov has stepped away from familiar themes of mortal power to more attention on personal issues.

The Hollywood Reporter: You are no stranger to Cannes. What was your reaction when you heard "Alexandra" had been accepted?