Aleksandra Nikolaevna is invited by her grandson, Denis, a senior lieutenant (Stárshiy Leytenánt) in the Russian Army, to visit his military base in Chechnya.

But it is a lawless land; the two young happy-go-lucky conscripts who assist Nikolaevna on to an armoured train are assailed shortly after saying goodbye at the station.

The next day she decides to leave the cantonments and visit the local market despite the reservations of the soldiers on guard duty.

Although initially aggressive to her because she is a Russian, his attitude softens when she tells him that people should not be labelled together and that intelligence is more powerful than war.

Aleksandra then returns to Denis' quarters where she finds her grandson mulling over his life in the army after he had to strike a soldier for disobeying him.

Slowly the elderly lady gathers her things before making one last walk through the camp saying goodbye to the soldiers she met.

Alexandra has an approval rating of 88% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 59 reviews, and an average rating of 7.49/10.The website's critical consensus states, "At once ethereal and tangible, Aleksandr Sokurov's humane Chechen War drama features a spectacular turn by opera star Galina Vishnevskay".

[5] However, David Fear of Time Out: New York wrote: "Sokurov prefers the sort of deliberate pace that tests ADD-afflicted viewers.

This isn’t an opinion: He’s an unapologetic practitioner of crafting "difficult" films, and a member of a slow-and-low legacy that extends from Antonioni to Akerman, from Tarkovsky to Tarr.