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These are central works in a canon that’s almost all central works. They also form an unofficial trilogy concerned with apocalypse, exile, nightmare and redemption. Tarkovsky is a Russian mystic with a vengeance, and these films are bleak, magnificently shot, emotionally devastating and relentlessly demanding. With the exception of The Sacrifice, which is a fairly straightforward story about a man tethered to a bargain with God under penalty of nuclear destruction, Tarkovsky never meets the audience halfway — but it’s usually worth the journey. Stalker is a Dante-esque journey through a blighted, post-end-of-the-world landscape. Nostalghia is an extended meditation on the idea of exile, the story of a Russian musicologist in Italy dreaming of home in the strangest ways. (Nostalghia, November 2, 8 pm Stalker, November 3, 1 pm The Sacrifice, November 6, 8 pm, Cinematheque Ontario)
