The Alexander Sokurov Collection

Sokurov has a distinctive style, so it's a real shame that there is no exploration of the man or his work in terms of the extras here. Not even trailers are included for the films. Even a booklet essay, placing the films within his body of work would have been welcome.

There has been some discussion of the poor negative used for this print of The Second Circle but - quite possibly because of its limited colour palette - it actually fares pretty well compared to some parts of Save And Protect, which are badly scratched and degraded. Elegy Of A Life is the most recent but still doesn't look particularly great.

The subtitling is fine on the features but not quite so accurate on the documentary. The audio, meanwhile, is decent, although there is a considerable amount of hiss in the silent moments of Save And Protect - given Sokurov's interest in sound design, there is every possibility that this is intentional.