It reminded me of "Lord of the Flies"

Great movie.

While watching I was curiously reminded of the novel "Lord of the Flies" which I last read some 50 years ago. (I have never seen either of the movie versions, 1963 and 1990).

Golding's novel was Christian propaganda and, although I am a convinced atheist, it did suggest one possible interpretation of "The Return".

"Lord of the Flies" is about a group of boys stranded on a desert island without adult supervision. During the course of the novel they regress from conventional private school morality to murderous and superstitious savagery.

An aviator parachutes down from a crippled aircraft but is entangled in a tall tree and dies. Had the boys rescued him he could have provided the leadership and moral guidance for them all to survive and prosper. But he becomes an object of fear and hatred.

This is a blatant parable about the Saviour being ignored.

There seems a similar theme in "The Return". The boys are not evil, but seem destined to get into trouble eventually. The father is strict, verging on brutal, but he does seem what they need. He punishes lying and slacking and teaches them survival skills and self-reliance. This regimen already seems to be working with the older brother but he is led astray by his sibling.

Furthermore, the father has retrieved something valuable which promises to improve the life of the whole family. (In Golding that would have been the Gospel - rules to live by). But he and it are lost, through the misbehavior of the younger brother.

The difference is that if the father is God re-entering their lives, he is a strict Old Testament god, not Jesus as in Golding.

While it is possible that Zvyagintsev was aware of Golding's novel, I am not suggesting he was influenced by it, but rather that both works draw on the underlying psychology of the God/father figure.

*** Immediately after writing this I stumbled on Chris Knipp's review of 12 April 2004. He points out the resemblance between the father and Mantegna's "Dead Christ" and his assessment of the father's behavior coincides with mine. Perhaps I am not alone in my theory?