Andreï Tarkovski

Andreï Tarkovsky is a Soviet-French-Italian director, screenwriter and writer considered one of the greatest Soviet directors. He has directed seven feature films which place him among the masters of the seventh art. His first film, Ivan's Childhood (1962), is seen as a sign of a revival of Soviet cinema. But Tarkovsky moved away from any pro-Soviet political considerations in his next film, Andrei Rublev (1966), which would cause him to face censorship with his next four films. At the end of the 1970s, he chose to leave the USSR to make his last two films abroad, Nostalghia (1983) and The Sacrifice (1986) because Soviet film organizations no longer allowed him to finance his films.

In his first feature film, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1962 Venice Film Festival, for Ivan's Childhood. Upon their release, his films were critical successes, but struggled to find their audience. They nevertheless met with success when they were authorized again in the USSR during perestroika. In 1986, he won the grand jury prize at Cannes for Le Sacrifice. Other Rewards:

• 1969: Andreï Roublev, international critics prize at Cannes;
• 1972: Solaris, special jury prize at Cannes;
• 1983: Nostalghia, Grand Prize for creative cinema at Cannes.

His work, demanding and imbued with mysticism, invokes several themes, such as childhood, Russian history, everyday life, or even the relationship with the earth and natural elements. His films, whether Stalker (1979) or The Mirror (1975), are considered classics.

The funerary monument, the work of Russian-American sculptor Ernst Neïzvestny, evokes Golgotha and has seven floors, symbolizing Tarkovsky's seven films. It is topped with an Orthodox cross made from the director's sketches. Andrei Tarkovsky is depicted on a Russian stamp dating from 2007.