Offret (1986)

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer:

Andrei Tarkovsky (screenplay)

Release Date:

November 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Alexander, a journalist and former actor and philosopher, tells his little son how worried he is about the lack of spirituality of modern mankind...

Plot Keywords:

Spirituality | Dream | Psychological Drama | Hope | Tree

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 7 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Erland Josephson	...	Alexander
Susan Fleetwood	...	Adelaide
Tommy Kjellqvist	...	Little Man
Allan Edwall	...	Otto
Guðrún Gísladóttir	...	Maria (as Gudún S. Gísladóttir)
Sven Wollter	...	Victor
Valérie Mairesse	...	Julia
Filippa Franzén	...	Marta
Per Källman	...	Ambulansförare
Tommy Nordahl	...	Ambulansförare
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tintin Anderzon	...	(voice)
Helena Brodin	...	(voice)
Birgit Carlstén	...	(voice)
Jane Friedmann	...	(voice)
Martin Lindström	...	(voice)
Jan-Olof Strandberg	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

Le sacrifice (France)
The Sacrifice
The Witch (Sweden) (working title)

Runtime:

149 min

Country:

Sweden | UK | France

Language:

Swedish | French | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | Italy:T | Australia:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG (1992 re-rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:12 (f) | UK:15 (original rating) | Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Filmhusateljéerna, Filmhuset, Svenska Filminstitutet, Gärdet, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI)

Trivia:

The part where Alexanders tells Little Man about when they found their house, is actually the true story of how Andrei Tarkovsky and his wife, Larisa Tarkovskya, found their house in the USSR.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[sub-titled]
Alexander: Come here and give me a hand, my boy.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Moskovskaya elegiya (1987)

Offret

This is the best movie I have seen so far. I watch it again about once or twice a year, like a ritual or an annual holiday I would be taking into levels of consciousness where the mind is not really required. I do not understand, and I do not feel like I have to, it is secondary. I feel touched like only pure and silent beauty can touch me, or bliss. It is obviously created around an idea of sacrifice, being both a gift to others but also to ourselves. By offering his life in order to save his family, his grandson and the world, the main character is also giving a true meaning to his own life that had mostly been of artificiality, questionings and shallowness. Every person who enters the house, he starts seeing under a deeper if not more expressionistic light... And when he meets with magic (while making love with the witch) he creates the bridge that will take him from reality into mystery. The whole film is as breathtaking and self-sufficient as a painting, or even more so, a Russian icon. It is ageless. I suppose it will remain with me for my entire life. I consider it Tarkovsky's last will, but even more so a piece of the Human Heritage that should be protected and kept accessible for future generation.