TARKOVSKY

97 min | Russian/Italian/Swedish  Documentary | Andrey A Tarkovsky

The brilliant director Andrey Tarkovsky, whose works are considered masterpieces of world cinema, left us with eight films and an ever growing interest in and desire to understand his work. The documentary recounts Tarkovsky’s life and work, letting the director tell the story himself, as he shares with us his memories, his view of art and his reflections on the destiny of the artist and the meaning of human existence. Thanks to some extremely rare audio recordings, viewers are able to immerse themselves in the mysterious world of his cinematic imagery, allowing them to comprehend and reassess the work and inner life of the great director.

The account is accompanied by never previously released recordings of poems by Arseny Tarkovsky, one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century and the director’s father, read by their author. Arseny’s poetry had always had an influence on Andrei’s movies, underlining the profound cultural and spiritual bond between father and son. The images of the film are made up of excerpts taken from the director’s works, rare contemporary photos and videos and sections shot in the places where Tarkovsky lived and made his movies, in Russia, Sweden and Italy, his adoptive home.

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

Bosphorus Film Festival

Venice Film Festival

Sao Paulo IFF

Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival

RIDM Montreal

Cinemania Fest

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

IDFA

International Film Festival of India – GOA

Porto/Post/Doc

Cinema Vérité

FEST Belgrade International Film Festival

FICUNAM, Festival Internacional de Cine UNAM

Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival – FICCI

Ljubljana Documentary Film Festival

 

ZagrebDox

CPH:DOX

Vilnius International Film Festival

Hong Kong International Film Festival

CinéDOC-Tbilisi

Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival

Espoo Ciné International Film Festival

Flatpack Festival

goEast

Docs Against Gravity Film Festival

Midnight sun festival

Telluride

PRESS QUOTES

FILMUFORIA
A masterpiece could be a manifestation of a soul passing next to you and clearly going upward, somewhere skyward, sweeping beside you, and leaving behind just a breath of wind for you to feel…

-Andrey Tarkovsky

COME-AND-REVIEW
A deep dive in Tarkovsky’s spiritualism
10/10

Rather than a biopic, Tarkovsky’s son compiles a documentary that draws from his father’s statements to narrate his artistic life. Little is shown about his private life (except his formative years), and the focus is on him as an auteur/director. Unlike most documentaries, there are no interviews or voice-over narrations. The only voice we hear (together with Arseniy Tarkovsky’s poetries read by him) is Tarkovsky, as he explains his experience and his artistic concepts and his cinematographic evolution. I would say that the main focus of the documentary is Tarkovsky’s spiritualism, his concept of how poetry requires spirituality, and art is a form of prayer. While most of the material is drawn from pre-existing media, I still found a few very interesting elements: I didn’t know that Tarkovsky directed Hamlet on stage with Anatoliy Solonitsin, and found it very delighting to see colour backstage recordings of the making of Andrei Rublev. The other element that Andrei A. Added, is the new recordings of some of the places where Tarkovsky lived: his Russian house, the house in Florence, etc., paired with recordings of the locations of Tarkovsky’s films (the city used in Andrej Rublev, the unfinished church from Nostalghia), as well as additional frames of natural scapes shot in tarkovskian taste, such as the opening shot, used for the poster. If you like Tarkovsky, make sure you see this!

DIRECTOR

Andrey A Tarkovsky

Producer

Andrey A. Tarkovsky

Dmitry Klepatski

Peter Krupenin

Paolo Maria Spina

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Alexey Naidenov

Editing

Michał Leszczyłowski

Andrey A. Tarkovsky

Associate Producers

Anthony Muir

Katarina Krave

PRoduced by

Andrey Tarkovsky

International Institute, Italy/Russia

Klepatsky Productions, Russia

HOBAB, Sweden

Revolver, Italy

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