The Alexander Sokurov Collection

George Bernard Shaw once described Wagner's Ring Cycle as having "some sublime moments but some terrible half hours" - the description is also apt for the work of Alexander Sokurov, who while often creating poignant scenes of trembling emotion, could never be said to pander to his audience in terms of pace, runtime or narrative. Those who like the work of Andrei Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr will find similar humanist themes in Sokurov's films, although he has a much greater tendency to self-indulgence than those two auteurs.

This Artificial Eye box set represents a cross-section of his work, comprising three films - the austere but ultimately moving The Second Circle, which charts a son's grief as he fights the Russian system to bury his father, evocative documentary Elegy Of Life about musician Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya and Save And Protect, a loose adaptation of Madame Bovary that is the least successful of the three.

This set is a decent introduction to Sokurov's distinctive style and offers a chance to see some of his lesser known work.