The Return

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Winner of the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice International Film Festival and critically acclaimed worldwide, The Return is one of the finest pieces of Russian film-making in years.

A haunting drama, The Return is out to buy and rent on DVD from 4th October 2004 from UGC Films UK and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Twelve years after leaving his wife and two young sons, a husband and father (Konstantin Lavronenko) returns without any explanation or apology. His sons Andrey (Vladimir Garin) and Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov) are forced by their mother (Natalya Vdovina) to accompany their father on a fishing trip to the remote Russian countryside.

The prospect excites the older and eager-to-please Andrey, happy that his father has returned, but Ivan, too young to remember this man, cannot forgive or respect someone who is essentially a stranger.

They eventually arrive at a lakeside where their father takes them on a small boat to an island in the middle of the lake. Ivan becomes increasingly anxious in the presence of the intimidating patriarch, as he and his brother struggle with the unanswered questions of who their father really is, where he has been all these years and why he has brought them to this remote and uninhabited place.

An impressive and assured debut from first-time feature film director, Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Return on DVD also includes a moving 'making of' featurette dedicated to the memory of Garin (the older son, Andrey) who died shortly after the completion of the film.