Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

The Return Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 22, 2018

Winner of Best First Film Award at the Venice Film Festival, Andrey Zvyagintsev's "The Return" (2003) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon/Artificial Eye. The only bonus feature on the disc is a lengthy documentary about the production history of the film. In Russian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The chicken

Russian master Andrey Zvyagintsev’s The Return evokes the deeply poetic beauty of Ingmar Bergman’s films while it fully embraces the quiet serenity that defined Aleksandr Sokurov’s non-documentary work. It is the best directorial debut to emerge from the former Soviet Union in many decades.

The entire film is set in an area that is hundreds, possibly even thousands of kilometers away from Moscow. Time appears to have stopped here but people either do not notice or have come to terms with the fact that the rest of the world simply does not care that they exist.

On a gloomy afternoon, brothers Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov) and Andrei (Vladimir Garin) are told by their mother (Nataliya Vdovina) that their father (Konstantin Lavronenko) has returned home. The two teenage boys are visibly shaken by the news because they have seen the man only on a very old and faded picture that the younger one, Ivan, has hidden in a thick book in the attic.

During a very awkward dinner the man claiming to be their father announces that he will take them fishing to a special place. The trip will take a couple of days, but it will be the perfect opportunity for them to learn about each other and strengthen their new relationship -- or at least this is what the mother, who isn’t going, hopes will happen. Later that night, an avalanche of feelings and emotions keeps the boys awake.

The trip surprises everyone -- Ivan and Andrei quickly learn that their father is a man of a few words who very rarely tolerates different opinions; the man also realizes that Ivan has a rebellious side and that he isn’t ready to embrace his ‘father’ with his obvious flaws. However, for a while the travelers ignore the obvious static that has emerged since they left the house.

The special place turns out to be an indescribably beautiful but secluded island that years ago the Soviet Navy might have used for something. While the boys go fishing their father heads to an abandoned shack to dig up a box containing something of value to him. Soon after, tempers flare after Ivan directly challenges his father’s overly aggressive behavior.

The exchanges between the three main characters are kept to a minimum and the majority of the time the conflicting feelings and emotions that they struggle with are actually revealed only through carefully arranged close-ups and panoramic shots. This allows Zvyagintsev to infuse the narrative with that special Russian sense of melancholy that can be traced back to such iconic films as The Cranes are Flying and Quiet Flows the Don.

The sense of melancholy is also closely intertwined with a lingering feeling of desperation caused by a gigantic failure that has crushed people’s ability to dream of and fight for a better life. Not surprisingly, there isn’t a single person that the camera looks at that actually appears alive or fully aware of the movement of time. It is as if they are all ghosts and just drifting through an endless nightmare.

The Return and the other four films that Zvyagintsev directed after it work magnificently well and leave lasting impressions for the exact same reason: they are imaginary time capsules that use their poignant visuals to extract the very essence of what it means to exist in post-communist Russia. It is why words frequently feel redundant in them.

The Return Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Return arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon/Artificial Eye.

The release is sourced from a fresh new remaster that is quite the revelation. I have only owned this R2 DVD release and while I no longer have it in my library to perform direct comparisons, I can confirm that the film's stylized appearance is vastly more convincing now. The reason for this is simple: there are ranges of dark(er) nuances that quite simply cannot be as effective in standard definition. Clarity, density and especially fluidity are of entirely different quality now as well, and as a result subtle shifts in tonal balance are more convincing (see csreencaptures #1, 3 and 4). Furthermore, delineation is excellent, and if you can upscale to 4K you will find out there is a wide range of miniature details that become even better defined. Some minor optimizations could have been performed to ensure even better/tighter visuals, but the end result is still magnificent. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Return Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Russian LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I used the lossless 5.1 track and thought that it was every bit as impressive as the visual. The film has a subtle but very atmospheric soundtrack that actually functions a lot like that dreamy score that Eduard Artemev composed for Stalker. Needless to say, there are shifts in tone and mood that are incredibly effective now. Fantastic track.

The Return Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Return - A Film About a Film - a wonderful documentary film about the production history of The Return and and Andrey Zvyagintsev's transition from the world of fast commercials to feature films. Included in the documentary are various clips from interviews with the director, members of his team, and actors. In Russian, with English, subtitles. (63 min).

The Return Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Russian cinema has been undergoing a quiet renaissance after the fall of communism and I find the various films that the likes of Andrey Zvyagintsev, Yury Bykov, Vasiliy Sigarev, and Pavel Lungin have directed in recent years to be vastly superior to the big festival winners that have come out of traditional European film producers like France and Italy. Zvyagintsev's directorial debut, The Return, is a brilliant drama about an unusual reunion that evokes the deeply poetic beauty of Ingmar Bergman's films while it fully embraces the quiet serenity that defined Aleksandr Sokurov's non-documentary work. This new Blu-ray release from Curzon/Artificial Eye is sourced from a stunning recent remaster that makes revisiting the film quite the special experience. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (If you enjoy The Return, also consider adding to your collections Bykov's equally atmospheric films The Fool and The Major).