An unnamed figure—who may or may not be alive—drifts through St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace, accompanied by a Russophobic nineteenth-century diplomat known only as “The European.” As the two journey through the vast building, they encounter long-dead figures from the city’s history.

Fusing virtuosic technique and weighty historical themes with majestic originality, Aleksandr Sokurov’s time-warping, metacinematic dreamscape is a rare one-off. Filmed in an unbroken, 87-minute take, Russian Ark is one of contemporary cinema’s most audacious formal experiments.