The Sacrifice (Swedish: Offret), 1986) is the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.
Alexander, an aging atheist actor/psychologist/writer (Erland Josephson) with a younger actress wife, a teenage daughter, and a young son (who is referred to as "Little Man" and is mute until the last shots) experiences the opening throes of the end of the world by a nuclear holocaust. In despair the protagonis...
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The Sacrifice (Swedish: Offret), 1986) is the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.
Alexander, an aging atheist actor/psychologist/writer (Erland Josephson) with a younger actress wife, a teenage daughter, and a young son (who is referred to as "Little Man" and is mute until the last shots) experiences the opening throes of the end of the world by a nuclear holocaust. In despair the protagonist vows to God to sacrifice all he loves (what this would mean in reality is not made plain in his prayer, and provides the final surprise of the film) if only this good act of fate may be undone, and to this end he sleeps with a local woman whom he believes to be a witch. When he wakes up the next morning everything seems "normal", but whether Alexander dreamt the whole episode is never made explicit. Nevertheless, Alexander sets forth to give up all he loves and possesses, burning his house and being driven off to an institution. One...
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