The Sun

The Sun (Солнце, 2005) is an Alexander Sokurov film you can watch online on iFILM — a Russian-Italian-French-Swiss co-production and the third chapter of his tetralogy on the nature of power, preceded by Moloch (Hitler) and Taurus (Lenin) and followed by Faust, which took the Golden Lion at Venice.

Summer 1945. Japan is still at war, though there is nothing left to fight with. Hiroshima has been leveled. Issei Ogata plays Emperor Hirohito moving through his days with the careful habits of a marine biologist — cataloguing specimens, keeping to his lab — while his military command reports one collapse after another. Robert Dawson appears as General MacArthur in scenes that push the film toward its historical pivot: the Emperor must renounce his divine status and announce surrender over the radio.

Sokurov works at a pace closer to painting than cinema. Details accumulate — a worn uniform, aquarium tanks, maps covered in retreat lines — and the film builds meaning through accumulation rather than event. Those who found Moloch or Taurus rewarding will recognize the method immediately. Stream The Sun (2005) online on iFILM.