An affectionate, intimate portrait of one of cinema’s greatest artists, Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer is a revealing behind-the-scenes documentary about the life and work of the extraordinary Russian director through the eyes of his son, Andrey A. Tarkovsky. Weaving together archival footage of his father on set, generous excerpts from all his films, audio recordings of him speaking about life and cinema, and many passages from his writings, Tarkovsky the son offers illuminating perspectives on this sometimes misunderstood artist and his cinematic art.

In addition, the film explores Tarkovsky the elder’s fascinating, occasionally troubled relationship with his own father, the peripatetic poet Arseni Tarkovsky. Locating Tarkovsky’s works in the context of the Cold War – Tarkovksy himself defected from the Soviet Union to Italy in the early 1980s and made his final film, The Sacrifice, in Sweden before dying in Paris several months later – A Cinema Prayer underscores just how unusual these spiritually driven works were and how clever Tarkovsky was to have gotten them made in the ideologically and aesthetically strict era under Presidents Kruschev, Brezhnev, and Andropov.

Both a heartfelt tribute to his father, and a searching examination of his life, work, and times, this film sheds marvellous new light on a film legend. Essential viewing, especially for Tarkovsky fans.

-Tom McSorley

Screening

Sunday, March 14 - Monday, March 15