Maria - Élégie paysanne

"Maria" is a requiem in memory of a Russian peasant woman, Maria Semionovna Voinova. All her life Maria Semionovna grew flax. It may be that after her death many secrets of working in the fields disappear. No one in her family picks up her methods of agriculture. Her son died tragically, her daughter will not work in the field, most likely, she will leave the village... The film is in two chapters. The first chapter is a colour summer impression of Maria Semionovna. Haymaking, bathing in the river, working in the flax fields, and holidaying in the Crimea (a rare opportunity in a peasant’s life), are the first impressions of the city dweller, which the author of the film was. The purpose of this chapter is to plunge the audience into a pastoral atmosphere. The second part shows the sad gifts of fate. Nine years have passed, and many things have changed. Some people have gone, others have appeared. The second chapter, in black and white, tells us how Maria Semionovna's life ended. It is a sad, elegiac picture. With "Maria", Sokurov presents a panorama of the fate of a particular person in particular circumstances