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Friday, May 4 | 8 pm
Saturday, May 5 | 5:30 pm
Winner of the Grand Jury, Best Cinematography, Ecumenical Jury, and Critics’ Prizes at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, Andrei Tarkovsky’s final masterpiece is an exquisite poetic parable about faith, familial love, and personal commitment set in the remote, starkly beautiful islands off Sweden’s southern coast. Surrounded by family and friends, who have gathered to celebrate his birthday, critic and scholar Alexander (Erland Josephson) learns of an impending apocalyptic event that threatens to destroy the entire world. In that moment, Alexander makes a vow to God that he will renounce everyone and everything he loves in order to avert the disaster. Sometime later he seeks out an ambiguous romantic encounter with a local woman named Maria, who is said to be a witch. The stripped-down apotheosis of Tarkovsky’s signature dreamlike aesthetic and philosophical themes, The Sacrifice ends with a virtuosic seven-minute long take that remains one of the most miraculous shots in the medium’s history.
Director Andrei Tarkovsky | 1986 | In Swedish, French, and English with English subtitles | 149 minutes | PG | DCP
