The Sacrifice is Andrei Tarkovsky’s final masterpiece. The film was shot in Sweden, in summer 1985 while Tarkovsky was in exile; it turned out to be his final testament, urging each individual to take personal responsibility for everything that happens in the world.

Day after day, while the film was being made, Layla Alexander-Garrett — Tarkovsky’s on-site interpreter — kept a diary which forms the basis of her book Andrei Tarkovsky: The Collector Of Dreams.

In this book the great director is portrayed as a real, living person: tormented, happy, inexhaustibly kind but at times harsh, unrelenting, conscience-stricken and artistically unfulfilled. “Don’t ever be afraid of the pronoun I,” Andrei exhorted, “Write only what it is that you feel.”

Awards:

Prize of the Guild of Russian Film Critics 2010 “Elephant”

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This title has been realised by a team of the following dedicated professionals:

Translated from the Russian by Maria Amadei Ashot,

Edited by David Holohan and Layla Alexander-Garrett,

Front cover photo by Layla Alexander-Garrett,

Back cover photo by Nastya Sakhar,

Maxim Hodak — Максим Ходак (Publisher),

Max Mendor — Макс Мендор (Director),

Yana Kovalskaya and Camilla Stein.

Layla Alexander-Garrett

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