In Aleksandr Sokurov 's film 'Alexandra', a cantankerous old woman, not yet senile but with a markedly inflexible mindset, visits her grandson, fighting in the Russian army in Chechnya. She wanders around, expressing her unhappiness that the world does not concur to her preconceptions, makes some friends anyway (in spite of being in the middle of a war zone), then goes home. It's a plausible portrait of old age, with Galina Vishnevskaya good in the leading role, but there's not any real narrative here, nor any true insight into the Chechen war. But it is a reminder of a place (as the film itself asserts) too often forgotten.
Review of Alexandra
