The Banishment DVD, 2007

Five years ago, Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Return came out of nowhere to grab a richly-deserved Venice Golden Lion, and his long-awaited second feature provides further evidence of this 44-year-old Russian’s claim to be the spiritual heir to Andrei Tarkovsky. Once again, he’s made a slow-burning drama in which revelations about family relationships have terminally rupturing consequences whose full implications sink in only gradually. In simple narrative terms it could almost come across as a domestic soap, were it not for the religious symbolism permeating almost every frame and an overwhelming sense of human tragedy that seems more suited to a weighty Russian novel than a mere film. From the bravura Arvo Pärt-scored opening sequence, it’s an immaculately-conceived and executed piece of film-making, immeasurably aided by Mikhail Krichman’s world-class cinematography, which turns the Russian landscape into as significant a contributor to the overall emotional texture as any of the human performers.

Michael Brooke on 13th November 2008
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