The Return (2003 film)

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The Return
Russian film poster
Directed by	Andrey Zvyagintsev
Produced by	Yelena Kovalyova Dmitri Lesnevsky
Written by	Vladimir Moiseyenko Aleksandr Novototsky
Starring	Vladimir Garin Ivan Dobronravov Konstantin Lavronenko Natalia Vdovina
Music by	Andrei Dergatchev
Distributed by	Kino International (US)
Release date(s)	25 June 2003 6 February, 2004 (NYC) 25 June, 2004 1 July, 2004
Running time	105 min
Language	Russian
IMDb profile

The Return (Russian: Возвращение; tr.:Vozvrashcheniye) is a 2003 Russian film released internationally in 2004. It tells the story of two teenage Russian boys whose father returns home suddenly after a twelve year absence. He takes the boys on a holiday to a remote island on a lake that turns into a test of manhood of almost mythic proportions.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Principal cast
4 Awards and nominations
5 External links

Plot

In contemporary Russia, young brothers Ivan and Andrey have grown a deep attachment to each other to make up for their fatherless childhood. Both mother and grandmother live with them. Running home after a fight with each other, the boys are shocked to discover their father has returned after a twelve year absence. With their mother's uneasy blessing, Ivan and Andrey set out on what they believe will be a fishing vacation with their taciturn father. Though at first ecstatic to be reunited with the father they've only known from a faded photograph, the boys strain under the weight of their dad's awkward and increasingly brutal efforts to make up for a missing decade of parental supervision. Ivan and Andrey find themselves alternately tested, scolded, scrutinized and ignored by their father through a changing series of encounters and hardships. As truck stops and cafés give way to rain-swept, primevally beautiful wilderness coastline, Ivan's doubts about his father give way to open defiance. Andrey's powerful need to bond with a father he's never known begins, in turn, to distance him from Ivan. Ivan and his father's test of wills escalate into bitter hostility and sudden violence as the trio arrives at their mysterious island destination.

Production

Director Andrey Zvyagintsev's father disappeared from his life when he was 6. The Return was filmed on and around Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland. The budget of the film remains a secret, though in an interview the director and the producer hinted that it was well below $500,000. The director also mentioned that the producers made their money back even before it was screened at Venice Film Festival. Actor Vladimir Garin, who played Andrei, drowned shortly after the end of shooting in the same lake where several of the picture's scenes were filmed.