Days of the Eclipse (Dni zatmeniya)The first of Sokurov's (Mother & Son, Russian Ark) features to be widely seen in the West, this strangely hallucinatory work is loosely based on a sci-fi novel by the Strugatsky brothers.
Shot through a burnished golden haze, the film conveys a devastating sense of alienation and a strange sense of intimacy as it follows the life of a Russian doctor studying a hereditary disease in Soviet Central Asia.
The film potently illustrates why critics now widely claim Sokurov as Tarkovsky's heir.
