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The final film by Andrei Tarkovsky, shot in Sweden by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman’s longtime collaborator, is 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. 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. Made as he was dying of cancer, THE SACRIFICE is Tarkvosky’s personal statement, a profoundly moving, redemptive tragedy steeped in unforgettable imagery and heart-wrenching emotion. (Note courtesy of Kino Lorber.) DIR/SCR Andrei Tarkovsky; PROD Anna-Lena Wibom. Sweden, 1986, color/b&w, 145 min. In Swedish with English subtitles. NOT RATED