Viacheslav Amirhanian

Documentary about Arseniy Tarkovsky, poet and father of Andrei Tarkovsky.

"Poetic documentary about the prominent Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky (1907/1989), father of director Andrei Tarkovsky. Arseny Tarkovsky translated countless poems from Georgian, Arabic, Armenian, Kyrghyz, Polish etc., but many of his own poems were also translated into other languages. The maker of the documentary, Viatcheslav Amirchanian, cared for Arseny Tarkovsky in the last years of the poet's life, shot many hours of film in that period, took countless photographs and, years later, he combined this with other material to form this documentary. Tarkovsky Sr, who was admired by colleagues such as Joseph Brodsky, Anna Achmatova and Marina Cvetaeva, was never published during the Stalin era, even though he had lost a leg as a soldier at the front. His first book (Before the Snow) only appeared in 1962 during the thaw under Khrushchev." - IFFR

Viacheslav Amirkhanian choreographs the costumed characters of the Russian past discreetly fitted in the urban setting of the present-day. He lavishly uses nature as an exciting setting where the past and the future meet, without dialogue.