Zvyagintsev's The Return (2003): Location Study

The Return focuses on the lives of two brothers as they take an unexpected opportunity to reconnect with their estranged father. With regards to the locations used during filming; the film takes advantage of the Russian parks and wilderness to make a visually pleasing settings for the scenes. Instantly this can be appreciated; the film uses some notable techniques to disperse the non-diegetic elements into the experience.

The film starts with an overhead shot of a lake, close up. The title caption appears through the water, the next shot reveals what resides under the water. The film relies on this lake in several key areas in the film; namely the beginning and end. The scene focuses on a giant rickety wooden tower that leans precariously off the land’s edge. The filmmakers make full use of this location, particularly when the children use it in a diving game that proves machismo; an overhead shot of the older brothers plunge into the lake shows how courageous the drop is. Later on the youngest brother still hasn’t dropped; as the setting sun turns the once grey sky into a weak yellow, the camera pans across the massive expanse, the amount of time that passed can easily be communicated. The next scene shows the children playing football in an abandoned parking garage. Even this scene, the children are framed between two lines of columns, the camera doesn’t frame this shot with complete symmetry, rather it keeps some of the shot free to show the crusty, graphitized wall. Throughout the film, focus will continue to show the stressed buildings and bleak depressing backdrops that in the context of the film; stand out with a poetic beauty. At 06:26 the boys scuffle and chase out of the garage, the second non diegetic event takes place; the filmmakers use this opportunity to show the children running through town, showing of more dilapidated man made aspects of the location while interspersing this with the credits. It makes for a peaceful transition and doesn’t spoil the atmosphere already built up.

Speaking of transitions, the filmmakers managed to use transitional scene changes as ways to put the scenery into the foreground. At 20:51; while the father and sons are on the road the scene change between events is fully taken advantage of in this aspect. The car leaves a layby, but for this shot it is not in focus, it only inhabits about 20% of the screen. The car leaves the shot completely but the shot hangs on what is in the foreground; long grass or wheat, swaying in the gentle breeze. This shot stays the same for at least ten seconds; looking further on it seems the filmmakers find opportunities to fit as much location shots in as possible. At 21:26 we have another panning shot that reveals the situation the characters currently reside in. The youngest son discards a bag to see its trajectory. Once he does, this gives the filmmakers reason to show the scene off; the overgrown Russian country road with leaning telegraph poles. As with most films that focus on a road trip ‘scenario’, it is important to advertise the transition of the characters on this journey, mainly to emphasize the progression that comes with travel. In a way, this is poignant theme of the film itself; the two boys experience a physical progression through travel, while at the same time progress mentally through experiencing time with their father. Location is used to create settings. At 22:15, the party stops to eat, this scene is quite memorable; the farcical charade created by his brother’s unquestioning adoration and his father’s general mystique is broken. This goes further when his father finds a fair way to punish him. To set this sequence of events up the film utilizes a long static shot of a unfinished building or at least the foundations of one. Unlike the uses before, this location shot is symmetrical. Perhaps this represents the father’s character, rigid and foreboding. The older son walks in front of the building, he is tiny in comparison.

When the characters finally reach their destination, they arrive at another large expanse of water. The water it seems is used as a symbolic metaphor for the amount of confusion felt by the two brothers. Always left unknowing, they never really manage to engage their father. Not to the degree any son would hope for. The water is murky and opaque. There is a feeling of unknowing attached to this image. If you were to swim in the water, what would your toes be touching? This imagery can be explored further with the inclusion of the box’s relevance and the fact that the father is eventually buried at sea, despite both of the son’s best efforts to take his corpse with them for a proper burial. The Return was a beautifully shot film that fully uses the hidden beauty of dilapidation.