Poetic documentary about the prominent Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky (1907/1989), father of director Andrei Tarkovsky. Arseny Tarkovsky translated countless poems from Georgian, Arabic, Armenian, Kyrghyz, Polish etc., but many of his own poems were also translated into other languages. The maker of the documentary, Viatcheslav Amirchanian, cared for Arseny Tarkovsky in the last years of the poet’s life, shot many hours of film in that period, took countless photographs and, years later, he combined this with other material to form this documentary. Tarkovsky Sr, who was admired by colleagues such as Joseph Brodsky, Anna Achmatova and Marina Cvetaeva, was never published during the Stalin era, even though he had lost a leg as a soldier at the front. His first book (Before the Snow) only appeared in 1962 during the thaw under Khrushchev. For Amirkhanian, this film is about how to be yourself: as far as he is concerned, the life of Arseny Tarkovsky is a lesson in loyalty and determination. At the same time, through the protagonist, the film provides a picture of the 20th century in Russia that ended, as we know, in 1990, a year after the poet’s death.
