
In December 2024, Alexander Sokurov held a master class for students of the online school operated by Seans magazine; the transcript forms the basis of this publication. Seans School represents a new phase for the St. Petersburg publishing house, whose authors have been writing about cinema and time for over thirty years. The school’s mission is to cultivate a new generation of screenwriters, editors, curators, and film critics. At the core of the curriculum are lecture courses dedicated to the history of the 20th century: the history of art, ideas, society, and humanity. The subject of Sokurov’s master class was chosen accordingly: we discuss the films of the “Tetralogy of Power” (“Moloch,” “Taurus,” “The Sun,” and “Faust”), which encapsulates the 20th century’s most painful issues and conflicts.