Sokoruv’s Russian Ark has been described as an oddity and a miracle—consisting as it does of one continuous, unbroken take through St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, populated by 2,000 actors and extras, and guided by a French nobleman and an unseen contemporary artist (Sokurov provides the voice). Sokoruv imagined a shot “in a single breath”—and the result is indeed a breathtaking pageant revealing the splendor of Imperial Russian history and culture, including wonderful, imagined scenes with Peter and Catherine the Great and Tsars Nicholas I and II, and brief glimpses into Soviet times.