Nostalghia (1983)

Synopsis

A haunting, enigmatic film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, his first made outside of the Soviet Union.

It is a portrait of a misanthropic poet, Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky), an expatriate in Italy who is researching the life of an exiled Russian composer who committed suicide.

Gorchakov finds himself crippled by a melancholy nostalgia for his Russian homeland and memories of his wife and children.



At St. Catherine’s pool – a sacred site near a Tuscan village – Gorchakov encounters local mystic and pariah, Domenico (Erland Josephson), who offers Gorchakov a glimpse of redemption through his belief that if one can travel across the pool with a lit candle, one can save all of humanity.

Nostalghia won the Grand Prix de Creation and the International Critics Prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast: Erland Josephson, Oleg Yankovsky, Delia Boccardo, Domiziana Giordano, Patrizia Terreno, Laura De Marchi, Milena Vukotic, Raffaele Di Mario, Rate Furlan, Livio Galassi, Elena Magoia, Piero Vida 

Cannes (In Competition): Best Director, FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, New York

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