The Mirror - English subtitled
Reflecting upon his own childhood and the destiny of the Russian people, this beautiful and densely layered film is Andrei Tarkovsky’s most autobiographical work.
The film’s many layers intertwine real life and family relationships – Tarkovsky’s father, the poet Arseny Tarkovsky, reads his own poems on the soundtrack and Tarkovsky’s mother appears as herself – with memories of childhood, dreams and nightmares. From the opening sequence of a boy being cured of a stammer by hypnotism, to a scene in a printing works which encapsulates the Stalinist era, THE MIRROR has an extraordinary resonance and repays countless viewings.
Andrej Tarkovski, Sovjet-Unie, 1975, 107 min. Russian & Spanish spoken, English subtitles.
With Margarita Terekhova, Oleg Yankovskiy, Filipp Yankovskiy, Ignat Daniltsev, Nikolay Grinko.