This film screened 25th May 2016.

Tired of state interference in his work, particularly after his experience in 1979 when attempting to make The First Day (a project for which filming had already begun before the frustrated director destroyed the existing footage), Tarkovsky moved production of Nostalgia to Italy, where he enjoyed greater artistic and financial freedom. Suitably, the film follows an expatriate Russian writer who yearns for the homeland of his memory, filled with an ennui that causes him to ignore the attentions of his beautiful translator (Domiziana Giordano), and only roused from his torpor after an encounter with a local mystic, who sets him a challenging task.

This film is screening as part of our Andrei Tarkovsky season, May 14th – 28th.