Zerkalo (The Mirror), Andréi Tarkovski, USSR, 1975, 107m, DCP, Russian with Spanish subtitles
This film is the heart of Andréi Tarkovski’s body of work, his fourth feature film and his most personal and intimate piece. The Russian director’s goal and resolve was to create a cinematographic self-portrait spanning the memory of his childhood and youth. At the same time, the film queries and tries to unravel the mystery of a life dedicated to image creation.
“Family album and emotional map”. This is how Tarkovski himself defined his movie. Thus, the film shows us a collage of times and memories traversing the key parts of his life: his relationship with his mother; poems written and recited by his father, the poet Arseny Tarkovsky; the separation of his parents in 1935; the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War. We are shown glimpses of his past and comments on the USSR and on the time which he lived through.
Not for the first time the Russian director had to stand up to his country's government, which refused to back the film, rated it dark and incomprehensible and prohibited it from being premiered at Cannes. In the meantime, the director's prestige abroad developed by leaps and bounds and the critics hailed him as one of the great names in the history of film. This deeply visionary and modern piece is the best example of the director’s work, and a film which we continue to learn from today. The Mirror is still the cinema of the future.
This film is the heart of Andréi Tarkovski’s body of work, his fourth feature film and his most personal and intimate piece.