One of the least compromising filmmakers in the world, whose fastidiously crafted movies typically concentrate on the most fugitive sensations, Sokurov outdoes all his previous efforts with this astonishing chamber piece. The director's trademark twilight zone is here the shadowland between consciousness and oblivion. A woman is dying, attended by her grown son in an isolated country cabin. Their speech is muffled, the light is fading, the perspective is unfixed, and yet these ethereal sounds and images have a startling precision. Pondering a postcard from her unknowable past, the son treats his enfeebled mother with a lover's tender solicitude. Mother and Son evokes overwhelming solitude amid creation. Watching it is like watching the last sunset. (J. Hoberman)