The Sacrifice(Offret)

The Armageddon prevailing in Nostalgia is about to come with an imminent nuclear apocalypse. Overwhelmed by his nihilistic despair at the death of spirituality, former actor Alexander, on his birthday, offers God the sacrifice of all he has for his family to be saved. Riddled with cancer during the making of his final film, Tarkovsky embodies in alterego his lifelong themes of baffling dualities: personal crisis and public catastrophe, faith and fear, madness and redemption. Beyond the irrevocable destruction in flames, Tarkovsky – and his hero – plants the final reconstruction, leaving behind to his young son and the whole world all the more important and powerful – the hopefulness of a tree, and the pure art of poetic cinema.

Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Jury, Best Artistic Contribution (Cinematography), FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

28/12 (Sat) Speaker: Dr. Fiona Law (Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong)