Chapter IX Summary and Analysis

Tarkovsky's last film, The Sacrifice, was conceived early in the filmmaker's career, while he was still in the Soviet Union. He was obsessed with the notion of sacrifice and the duality of love—love's ability to both enthrall and to free. Tarkovsky centered the film around a man who was capable of sacrifice. In a larger sense, Tarkovsky wanted to remark on the materialism he saw the world being infected with. Modern man has a poor sense of spirituality, of deference to a higher power.

The protagonist of The Sacrifice, Alexander, is remarkably cured of cancer after spending a night in bed with a witch. Art is eerily reflecting life; at the time of the writing, Tarkovsky's favorite actor, Solonitsyn, had recently died of cancer, and Tarkovsky himself is battling cancer (a battle he would unfortunately lose soon...