Mat i syn (Мать и сын) - Aleksandr Sokurov (1997)

For those who appreciate art, nature, and the humbling magnificence of the cycle of life, here is a great simple film from one of the most creative filmmakers of today.
A son (Aleksei Ananishnov) comforts his terminally ill mother (Gudrun Geyer) with gentle caresses, combing her hair, sharing dreams that are identical, and providing solace in every way imaginable.
Aleksandr Sokurov in MAT I SYN (Mother and Son) has succeeded in capturing those brief, breathing moments that surround death, freezing them in an timeless mold like a shell in a crystal mass, something that goes beyond the passage of time and captures the essence of extended farewells. This brief film is one of the most probing and tender embraces of the meeting/meaning of life and death, of the continuity of a mother's soul in the form of her son, and most important, it is an elegy about the quiet power and beauty of nature.
Filmed on the island of Rügen close to the coast of Germany, with sounds from nature - rumbling thunder, wind in the trees - and minimal music, each frame is a still life of nature both with and without the two characters, and with the use of filters, mirrors and broken glass, the images are indescribably beautiful.