The Sacrifice (4K UHD)
The Sacrifice is Andrei Tarkovsky’s (Stalker) final masterpiece, a haunting vision of a world threatened with nuclear annihilation. As a wealthy Swedish family celebrates the birthday of their patriarch Alexander (Erland Josephson, Cries and Whispers), news of the outbreak of World War III reaches their remote Baltic island — and the happy mood turns to horror. The family descends into a state of psychological devastation, brilliantly evoked by Tarkovsky’s arresting palette of luminous greys washing over the bleak landscape around their home. (The film’s masterful cinematography is by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman’s longtime collaborator.) For Alexander, a philosopher troubled about man’s lack of spirituality, the prospect of certain extinction compels the ultimate sacrifice, and he enters into a Faustian bargain with God to save his loved ones from the fear which grips them. The Sacrifice was made as Tarkovsky was dying of cancer, and stands as a profoundly moving summation of his extraordinary life and career. 2023 4K SDR Restoration carried out by the Swedish Film Institute from the original 35mm camera negative. Audio mix restored from magnetic tape.
DISC 1 (4KUHD):
- Audio Commentary by Layla Alexander-Garrett, Tarkovsky’s translator on the set of The Sacrifice
DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):
- Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1988, a documentary on the making of The Sacrifice)
- Interview with Michal Leszczylowski (editor of The Sacrifice and director of Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky)
- Trailers
- Andrei Tarkovsky - Director
- Erland Josephson - Actor
- Sven Vollter - Actor
- Allan Edwall - Actor
- Valerie Mairesse - Actor
- Gudron S Gisladottir - Actor
- Susan Fleetwood - Actor
Reviews
"A stunningly beautiful film..."
"An epic vision... Spiritual mastery... A work of genius."
"Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film, among his closest to perfection, is a traversal of agonies, exploring the savage compromises and bargaining that make up life and death."
"Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film is a grand, unworldly, even antiworldly religious vision."
“The first and penultimate shots—ten-minute takes that are, in very different ways, remarkable and complex achievements—manage to say more than most films do over their entire length.”
"Hang on to the very end and you may find yourself moved as you have never been moved before."
Awards
Best Artistic Contribution Cannes Film FestivalFor press and publicity inquiries, please email press@kinolorber.com. A selection of press materials for this title may be available for download here.
Videos
Stills
