(Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986, Sweden, 145 minutes)

New 4K restoration!

The Sacrifice, Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky’s seventh and final narrative feature film, made while he was dying of cancer, finds him edging toward Ingmar Bergman territory while retaining his own distinct and indomitable voice. And when we say he edges toward Bergman’s territory, we mean that both figuratively and literally—The Sacrifice is a Swedish production, focused on a Swedish family (with the patriarch, Alexander, being played by Cries & Whispers’ Erland Josephson), and was shot by Bergman’s brilliant cinematographer Sven Nykvist (Persona, among countless others). Alexander and his family are celebrating his birthday on a remote Baltic island when news of World War III breaks. Alexander is impelled to take rash action to save his family from impending nuclear war.

In Swedish, French, and English, with English subtitles as needed.