Andrei Tarkovsky once said, “The artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn't look for harmony, but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world.”
The Post-Stalinist period saw the rise of a new wave of films in Russia that broke out from communist control. And all over Europe, there was a new cinematic language. Tarkovsky is one of the forerunners of the Russian New Wave along with other directors like Sergei Parajanov, Aleksei German, Tengiz Abuladze, Otar Iosseliani, and Nikita Mikhalkov. He managed to avoid Soviet censorship and craft films that pierce people’s hearts and minds and to this day continue to influence numerous filmmakers.
Tarkovsky directed only seven feature films in his lifetime and each one displays his distinctive style and imagination. He died after a battle with cancer in 1986.
'Ivan's Childhood' (1962): The film talks about a young boy working as a spy for Russian soldiers. As the film unfolds, we see the how the boy is emotionally shattered by the events of the war. The film depicts how war destroys childhood.
(Published 19 February 2018, 11:59 IST)
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