The Sun

Director Alexander Sukurov maintains that he doesn't make films about dictators per se (The Sun, or Solntse, is the third part of a tetralogy that includes films about Stalin and Hitler) but films about people who are 'more outstanding than the rest' - and for that reason, their heightened passions and human characteristics make for more dramatic viewing. The Sun is set in the wake of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and concerns itself with Emperor Hirohito (Ogata), who makes a public appeal and commands his army to cease fighting - a hitherto unimaginable disgrace in Japan. General MacArthur (Dawson), leading the US Pacific forces, offers as diplomatic a solution to the emperor's predicament as the situation allows, and the double-handers between the men are delicately poised. The film belongs to Ogata, though, who offers a perverse blend of an experienced and sage statesman with an almost childlike perception of the world around him. It's a difficult role to pull off, but Ogata's performance makes for a superb character study of a man who had the wisdom to see beyond the traditions of national pride and tap into the wider consciousness of global humanity.