The Second Circle (1990) | A man burying his father

The film starts with a severe Siberian snowstorm. An unnamed young man is walking through it. The title “The Second Circle” appears. Here, the title “The Second Circle” reminds us of the second circle in Dante’s Inferno. In Dante’s hell, the people who are controlled by desire and lust are punished in this second circle. There, they are constantly blown away by a severe storm. Those who wandered without control in life because of their desires are now being endlessly wandered around by the storm. But Sokurov does not use this idea of “lust” only in the sense of sexual desire. He expands it further into spiritual emptiness, loss in human relationships, and the burden of death.

Upon returning home, the young man discovers that his father has died. After that, the story is about his attempt to bury his father with respect. The biggest achievement of this film is that Sokurov takes a very small event, “a man burying his father,” and turns it into a much bigger experience about death, memory, bureaucracy, and spiritual emptiness.

Sokurov himself describes the film as centering on a single, solitary event. The snow, the desolate landscapes, the dim lighting, and the lifeless rooms do more than merely reflect the protagonist's psychological state; they evoke the feeling that the entire world has died along with his father. If we watch this film without sound, some scenes can even look like a deadpan comedy. But the sound, colour, camera movement, transitions, and everything together take the viewer into a kind of nightmare.

It is a must-watch film. I cannot fully articulate the exact feeling this movie evoked in me; beyond what I have written here, it will offer you a unique experience.