An elderly woman takes a train trip to visit her grandson at his army camp inside Chechnya. The brief synopsis completely covers the entire plot of the picture. Very little else happens apart from some slightly strange sexual tension. The film is well shot though.

Sokurov was a genius in his pieces on the Hermitage and the Japanese emperor. Here he takes us on a slow journey to prove that the Russians shouldn't be in Grozny. For once the master storytelling seems unable to make the compelling case.

Once again, I find myself at odds with critics. Whilst the message of the film is strong and good the idea of watching a Russian grandmother walkaround a Russian army base for 90 minutes giving out her views to anyone who listens aint my idea of a good film

My second Sukoruv film and although it doesn't dazzle like Russian Ark it is incredibly poignant. Slow and melancholy with plenty to engage with.

its the proof of that how your rhythm could be slow but not boring. a war film but different from all other ones that you watched till now.

An entertaining meditation on the relationship one grandmother has on her grandson, as she is with him while he is engaged in military duty.

A great little film about the futility and foolishness of war.

What amazing emotion in a simple story..the lead actress is so amazing ,and the director does a great job..very engaging and makes you think without causing too much trauma on the mind !

This was an amazing movie, without much props or even dialogues, it shows you the horror of war and the love that hides in the hearts of everyone involved in it.

Wars, damn wars! There is so little in this movie, but it touches the whole rainbow of feelings.

Donald Trump sucks big time! Oh wait, this is something different for today.

The idea of a grumpy, mostly unsympathetic granny wandering freely around a Russian army base seemed at first a little implausible. By the end of the film it seemed utterly ridiculous. I seem to be in a minority here thinking this was rather a poor effort, but I felt this film had astonishingly little to say about a very serious subject, with characters so badly drawn, with little or no depth, I could not engage with them on any level. The music was good, and while cinematography was great too, the most unforgivable thing about this film was the way many shots simply did not edit together.

An entertaining meditation on the relationship one grandmother has on her grandson, as she is with him while he is engaged in military duty.

A beautiful film, particularly in its use of color, light, and close-ups. As with other Sokurov films I've seen, there's a dreamlike quality to the proceedings, a sense of the unreal to the whole thing, even as the film seeks to portray the base and surrounding locale as they actually are. I like the emphasis on the effects of war on people over a long period of time, something that seems ever more significant in our war-happy world.

En Chechenia, region limitante con Georgia, cercana a Turquia por el nororiente, se desarrolla esta historia de una abuela que ve a la zona militar rusa implicada en el conflicto para visitar a su nieto, un oficial de este ejercito ruso venido en desgracia que aun trata de mantener la unidad de todas las regiones. Un ejercito lleno de niños que aun no tienen remota idea de porque luchan, en condiciones infrahumanas y peleando contra pueblos hermanos. Cruda radiografia de la guerra que bien puede ser la yanqui en medio oriente o la china en Tibet. Y como el cine de Sukorov: lento, aburrido, denso y bueno.

Honest and genuine. Performances are the same. Very genuine, the acting is so flawless it looks documentary like.

Sokurov takes a faintly absurd fish-out-of-water premise of a weary grandmother visiting her grandson at army barracks on the Chechyen frontline, and heightens it to strange dreamlike and poetic levels. The soldiers are seemingly transfixed by the grandmother, whose often brash criticising tone masks a deep dislike of the dehumanising military routines she witnesses, and some pity for the young men she sees. Larger political allegory was lost on me, which might have hindered my full appreciation for the subtleties present, more interesting and odd was the relationship between grandmother and grandson which showed a curiously harsh, vaguely erotic, yet tender familial love.

Alexandra is quite a demanding view: the pace of the film is really slow and from the start it's not apparent if director is in terms with filmographic means - there are some odd decisions on the camera work and cuts and the content - it is not clear if the film idolizes the situation or not. The longer film goes on the more the slow pacing pays back as it is true to it's main character - this old lady who visits her grandson in Chechnya. Some of the most rewarding scenes come in naturally and flow out in the same manner. The content is pure delight in the end but it seems the means are not there always.

A subtle anti-war message using a war zone depicted from a visiting old lady's point-of-view. Very little actually happens but the relationships she builds with the Russian soldiers and Chechnya people are very symbolic.

Too self-conscious and self-important