Out of all the titles in Andrei Tarkovsky’s filmography, Nostalghia might be his most underseen work. The reason why is possibly due to how cryptic it is– it is hard to recommend a film you can’t fully explain or understand. That said, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. If anything, the opaqueness fits for the situation the main character is in. As Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov tries to study the life of another artist from his country, Tarkovsky’s signature long takes builds up a lingering feeling that’s part displacement, and part the title emotion. At the same time, it seems to have unconsciously mirrored some of the facts of Tarkovsky’s own self-exile. Nostalghia may not have the same acclaim as his other works, but it’s nonetheless a film worth revisiting.
Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov journeys through Italy with his interpreter Eugenia to research the life of an 18th-century Russian composer who once lived abroad. Isolated and consumed by an unrelenting longing for his homeland, Andrei becomes drawn to Domenico, a radical mystic obsessed with spiritual redemption. Through austere imagery and extended temporal rhythms, Tarkovsky examines exile, memory, and the profound melancholy of being unable to belong fully to either place or language.
Cannes
3 wins
