Special "Lights, Camera, Action!": ARCHITECTON by Victor Kossakovsky.

Architecton, directed by Victor Kossakovsky, is a mesmerizing and contemplative documentary that transforms stone and concrete into living protagonists.

The film opens with drone footage of bomb-ravaged buildings in Ukraine and earthquake-shattered cities in Turkey, immediately evoking a deep sense of loss and urgency.

These sequences—shot in striking black and white or vivid color—feel like a “meditative poem” demanding the viewer’s full immersion.

Bernhard’s imagery captures the monumental power of ancient stones—quarries, ruins at Baalbek, veined marble slabs—in exquisite detail.

A lingering shot of an ant crossing a colossal stone highlights Kossakovsky’s ability to render the mundane monumental.

Galperine’s score, with its deep drones and winding brass, intensifies the visual experience, interweaving sonic gravitas with the slow-motion cascade of pebbles and rubble.

The music becomes almost another character in the unfolding narrative.

This amazing movie is an extraordinary journey through the material that makes up our habitat: concrete, and its ancestor, stone.

Filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky (Gunda, Aquare) raises a fundamental question: how do we inhabit the world of tomorrow?

Courtesy of A24