The Sun

Alexander Sokurov

This was an incredible film: a slow, patient treatment of the three days in the life of Hirohito in 1945 when the war had ended and he was forced to confront General MacArthur. He was an educated man but so isolated that he had no sense of the world outside the palace or how to interact with people on a human level. He was considered a living god by the Japanese people and treated as such which grossly distorted his perspective.

This film captured his persona...awkward, halting, scholarly, decent and well-meaning,...and the atmosphere around him. It is the third in a trilogy by Sokurov about world leaders during WW2. Sokurov's body of work places him in the front rank of filmmakers in the world today.

This film has no commercial potential. Too bad. It is a triumph.

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