Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter from Russia, regarded among the greatest in cinema history. His work is marked by slow pacing, extended takes, and dreamlike imagery, with a deep focus on spirituality, metaphysics, nature, and memory. He studied film at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography under Mikhail Romm. His first five features were made in the Soviet Union: *Ivan’s Childhood* (1962), *Andrei Rublev* (1966), *Solaris* (1972), *Mirror* (1975), and *Stalker* (1979). After ongoing creative clashes with state film authorities, he left the country in 1979 and completed his final two films abroad—*Nostalghia* (1983) and *The Sacrifice* (1986). That same year, he released *Sculpting in Time*, a book on cinema and art. He died of cancer later in 1986, a condition possibly linked to toxic filming locations for *Stalker*.

Tarkovsky earned many honors, including the FIPRESCI prize, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury at Cannes, as well as the Golden Lion at Venice for his debut, *Ivan’s Childhood*. *The Sacrifice* won a BAFTA Film Award. In 1990, he was posthumously awarded the Lenin Prize. Three of his films—*Andrei Rublev*, *Mirror*, and *Stalker*—appeared on the *Sight & Sound* 2012 list of the 100 greatest films.

Born on 4 April 1932 in the village of Zavrazhye, near Yuryevets, east of Moscow, Tarkovsky was the son of poet and translator Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky and Maria Ivanovna, both graduates of the Moscow Literature Institute. His parents moved to the village shortly before his birth because Maria’s father, a doctor, lived there. His sister Marina was born in 1934. His paternal grandfather, Aleksandr Karlovich Tarkovsky, was a Polish nobleman and bank clerk, married to Romanian-language teacher Maria Danilovna Rachkovskaya from Iași. His maternal grandmother, Vera Nikolayevna Vishnyakova, belonged to the Dubasov noble family, tracing back to the 17th century; she hid her relation to Admiral Fyodor Dubasov during the Soviet era. She was married to Ivan Ivanovich Vishnyakov, a judge from Kaluga Governorate who studied law at Moscow University. Family legend claimed Tarkovsky’s paternal ancestors were princes from the Shamkhalate of Tarki in Dagestan, but his sister Marina, after detailed genealogical research, called this a myth or prank, with no documentary evidence.

Tarkovsky’s father left the family for another woman in 1936–1937. His father remarried, but his mother did not, devoting herself to her children and work. Tarkovsky later said he lived with his mother, grandmother, and sister in a household without a man, which deeply affected his character. He always missed his father, who left when he was three. Life was incredibly difficult in every way. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the family evacuated to Yuryevets, which became his childhood home. He lived with his maternal grandmother until 1943. In Moscow, he had mostly stayed indoors, but in Yuryevets he was left alone and exposed to street life. He saved his mother from drowning in a river, one of his most traumatic experiences there. He hoped his father, fighting in the war, would return. Arseny lost a leg and received a medal but never came home or met his son, causing Andrei great pain.

Tarkovsky moved back to Moscow with his mother and sister, where she worked as a proofreader at a printing press. He returned to Moscow School No. 554, where poet Andrei Voznesensky was a classmate. He studied piano at a music school and attended art school. The family lived on Shchipok Street in Zamoskvorechye. From November 1947 to spring 1948, he was hospitalized with tuberculosis. Many childhood themes—evacuation, his mother with two children, the absent father, time in the hospital—appear prominently in *Mirror*. As a student, he was a troublemaker and poor performer but still graduated. From 1951 to 1952, he studied Arabic at the Oriental Institute in Moscow but dropped out to work as a prospector for the Academy of Sciences Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. He joined a year-long expedition to the Kureyka River near Turukhansk in Krasnoyarsk Krai. While in the taiga, he decided to study film.

Returning from the expedition in 1954, he applied to the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) and was admitted to the film-directing program. He shared a class with Irma Raush (Irina), whom he married in April 1957. The early Khrushchev era provided opportunities for young directors. Before 1953, film production was low and mostly handled by veterans. After 1953, more films were made, many by younger directors. The Khrushchev Thaw eased some social restrictions and allowed limited access to European and North American literature and films.