Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky is considered to be the most important Soviet moviemaker since Sergei Eisenstein. Tarkovsky was the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky and studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his debut feature, Ivan’s Childhood (1962), which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. This resulted in high expectations for his second film Andrei Rublev (1966), which was banned by the Soviet authorities for two years.

Among the many post-war Soviet film directors, Tarkovsky had the greatest impact on world cinema. In 2018, the term “tarkovskian,” describing his unique slow, meditative style, was added to the Oxford Dictionary. Since Tarkovsky’s death in 1986, the influence of his cinematic style has spread from international film festivals to rock music clips, and even video games.

According to reports, Tarkovsky has a complicated reputation, with his movies being often called “slow” and “boring.” However, he remains the only Russian filmmaker of the second half of the 20th century whose work has become a yardstick example of arthouse cinema.