Acclaimed Siberian director Alexander Sokurov, will be the subject of a two-week film festival between July 23 -Aug. 5. The Cannes Film Festival regular is one of Russia's greatest directorial exports, responsible for such celebrated films as "Mother and Son" (1997) and "Moloch" (1999). However, it was the historical drama "Russian Ark" (2002) that brought him his current international prominence.

Sokurov was born in 1951 to a World War II veteran in the coldest depths of Russia. As his family moved around a lot during his childhood, Sokurov would not discover his interest in film until he reached university, when he became an assistant television director at just 19 years old in Gorki, Russia's third largest city. In his 20s he moved to Moscow and became acquainted with filmmaking and garnered respect in the local industry fairly early on.

It was at this early stage in Sokurov's career that he built a close relationship with celebrated Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. It was Tarkovsky's film "The Mirror" (1975) that attracted Sokurov's attention and influenced his own cinematic style, which consists of shooting long takes, drawing out a raw acting style from his performers and using unrefined sounds from nature.