Sonata for Hitler is a curious and indelible montage of dissociative images that intercut historical footage of wartime Germany and the Soviet Union: a somber Adolf Hitler habitually wringing his hands; blind or unfocused, distracted factory workers mechanically assembling military arsenal; fervored crowds erupting into spontaneous salute as an expression of national solidarity. Composed of a series of surreal images that depict the parallel dictatorships of Hitler and Joseph Stalin during World War II, Aleksandr Sokurov creates an abstract and fragmented, but ultimately provocative and internally cohesive statement on isolationism, militarism, fanaticism, and tyranny.
© Acquarello 2003. All rights reserved.