Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky • 1986 • Sweden

The final film from the great Andrei Tarkovsky is a moving meditation on faith and family that builds to one of the most famous climaxes in film history. Produced in exile in Sweden with a crew of Ingmar Bergman’s closest collaborators, The Sacrifice concerns Alexander (Erland Josephson), a wealthy lecturer in a lavish seaside manor. When World War III breaks out, Alexander makes a deal with God to spare his family – one that will have devastating consequences. This typically profound treatise on mortality was produced while Tarkovsky was sick with the cancer that killed him shortly after he completed the film.

THE SACRIFICE • OFFRET
Written and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Cinematography by Sven Nykvist
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Watazumido-Shuso
Starring: Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Allan Edwall

In Swedish with English subtitles

Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival 1986