Russian Ark (2002)
Can you capture a nation’s cultural identity within the confines of a single film, let alone a single continuous take? This is the challenge director Alexander Sokurov undertakes in Russian Ark, a magnificent tour through vignettes of Russian history within the sumptuous halls of St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace. With several thousand actors, years of planning, and only 48 hours to pull it off, Russian Ark is a true technical marvel, perhaps the most successful one-take film in history.
