Elegy of the Land

Masterful writer-director Aleksandr Sokurov ("Russian Ark") expresses his admiration for the spiritual qualities of his Russian homeland in these two captivating shorts. "Last Day of a Rainy Summer" (1978) chronicles the everyday labors of a farming collective─known as a kolkhoze─in the twilight of its ubiquity. Sokurov pays tribute to an industrious farming peasant with "Maria" (1988), which contrasts Maria's hard-working life on the farm with the broken legacy of the collective that followed her passing. 66 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: Russian; Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Spanish; DVD-ROM content. In Russian with English subtitles.