Click image to purchase

Russian

The Sacrifice is Tarkovsky's last film. It was finalized while he was dying of cancer. The movie begins with a pan across The Adoration of the Three Kings by Leonardo, then cuts to an older man standing on a grassy lakeshore and playing with a nearly dead sapling. While a small boy plays around the base of the tree, the man tells us the story of Pamve, an orthodox monk who once planted a nearly dead tree on a mountainside, very much like our narrator is doing here.

Alexander {Erland Josephson} goes on to tell us about a young student that was given the duty of watering the sapling every day and that he did this successfully every day for three years until the morning that he found the tree to be in full bloom. This cues a short explanation of changing the world through ritual. Once the explanation has ended, a man carrying a telegram for our narrator rides into view on his bicycle. Alexander asks the postman to read the telegram to him. It's a birthday greeting and Alexander seems to be delighted by it.

After a few minutes of lively banter concerning Alexander's career as a writer and a few words about God, our cyclist and goes on about his merry way and rides off into the distance while Alexander and the boy wander off across the countryside. Cut to a car as it pulls to the side of a dirt road. A young man and woman climb from the car and greet Alexander. Alexander, in turn, greets the doctor who, of course, wishes him a happy birthday. For a few minutes they discuss the young boy's recent operation, which keeps him temporarily unable to speak.

Once a few more pleasantries have been exchanged, the couple tells Alexander that his present is in the trunk, get back into the car and drive away. Alexander wants to walk home so that he can share a few more minutes with the "Little Man". As they walk, Alexander holds forth on the nature of man and society and culture and does this basically for himself; little man has wandered off into the underbrush somewhere. When the boy playfully jumps from his hiding place and on to Alexander's back, the two take a bit of a tumble and little man ends up with a bloody nose. This seems to upset Alexander as much as it does the boy.

Cut to a black and white shot of destruction in a street somewhere. Back at the house, we engage in a bit of polite, "Birthday", conversation: Alexander looks through a book of paintings then Doctor Viktor {Sven Wollter} tells us about his "lousy" day. While Alexander discusses his life, Marta {Filippa Franzén} enters the room and looks lovely. When Adelaide {Susan Fleetwood}, Alexander's wife, walks in, she manages to add a bit of insight into Alexander's theatrical career.

Victor confides to us that he'll soon be moving to Australia and Otto {Allan Edwal}, the mailman, stops by with his gift of a very large map that was made back in the 1600s. Otto, in addition to working as a postman, is a retired teacher who collects "incidents". "Incidents" are those unexplained happenings, that occur the world over, that people use as proofs in obscure books about the paranormal.

It's not long after that the planes buzz the house and the bombing begins. Everyone seems to be in a state of shock while they watch the television broadcasts that warn them not to panic. Adelaide is the first person who panics.

This is basically a chamber film about the end of the world; a study of eight characters and the way each of them deals with the knowledge that the ultimate war has finally come. The performances are, without exception, wonderful and powerful and poetic. The effects are perfect and done with not a lot more than a shake of the camera and some loud noises. The movie is filled with dreams sequences and artistic interludes that are absolutely perfect for the subject matter. The cinematography by Sven Nkvist is masterful as is Tarkovsky's direction. The story is fairly simple and a lot more straightforward than much of Tarkovsky's later work. He basically sets up the characters and lets us get to know them, then tosses them into hell just to see how they'll react. This does have a pleasantly twisted ending to it.

The Kino disk comes with a documentary named "Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky" which is long and fairly in depth and that spends a lot of time with Tarkovsky as he directs this film. It's pretty informative as this sort of thing goes.

Sven Nykvist