The Russian master Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark, Alexandra, Faust) returns with another literal museum piece, a portrait of the Louvre that extends into a transcendent investigation of art, life, and cultural and political power. A trip across hundreds of years of European and Russian history and culture, Francofonia gives life not only to the artworks inside the Louvre, but to the history of the museum itself, especially during World War II, when the German invasion threatened its very existence. Combining documentary and philosophical musings with fictional re-enactments, Sokurov poses a simple, yet profound query: “What is more important, culture or life?”