(Grand)Mother and (grand)Son

This is too similar to Sokurov's earlier film "Mother and Son", only nowhere nearly as gripping. The strength of Mother and Son lies the fact that the very minimal dialogue lets the symbolic imagery convey the theme (reverse pietà) in a powerful way. By contrast, the dialogue in Aleksandra just rambles on and the visual setting of the military camp, depicted in washed-out colours, is rather dull.