In the history of cinema there are films that speak directly of religious subjects, but there are others that, although apparently they do not speak, raise spiritual questions of the first
order. Many directors have been able to penetrate this transcendent dimension of reality and of the human being with the camera. The Russian director Andréi Tarkovski (1932-1986) is part of this lineage. His films appeal directly to the spiritual sensitivity of the viewer, to the drive for transcendence and the human need for infinity.
Modern civilization, according to Tarkovsky, is in crisis. Most humans only seek to satisfy the problems of everyday life. They pursue illusory goals such as material wealth, power, pleasure, etc., and move away from the idea of depth or, if you will, of God. Tarkovsky constantly criticizes the modern individual’s dependence on materiality and disconnection from that which is spiritual and transcendent. The modern culture of masses, thought for the consumer -says Tarkovski to sculpt in time (1985)–, “mutilates souls, closes the path to the fundamental questions of human existence and deprives one from becoming aware of one’s own identity as a spiritual being”. The word Sacrifice –the title of his last film (1986)– does not have a negative connotation for the Russian director. On the contrary, sacrifice is a revolutionary act against an obsessively “rational” world: self-sacrifice for the good of other people or for the truth. The ability to sacrifice oneself and to have faith in the essential values of life – love, faith, dedication to an ideal – is necessary for the world to be saved from absolute catastrophe. Every true artist makes this sacrifice. That is why each artist is at the same time a prophet: he has a responsibility and art has a mission in the transfiguration of man.
The goal of art is to explain the meaning of life and human existence
Every work of art is a revelation, an incarnate work – as is the Word that the prologue of the Gospel of Joan speaks of – a light that man needs. The light of Russian medieval icons is situated by Tarkovsky in the dimension of that which is eternal and true. Andrei Rublev –the title of a film by Tarkovsky in honor of the renowned icon painter (1966)– despite acknowledging that evil exists, he breaks his vow of silence and paints again, given that in this way he can provide the necessary light so that the darkness. “In any case –writes Tarkovski–, there is no doubt that the goal of art that does not want to be consumed as a commodity is to explain for itself and its environment the meaning of life and human existence. Or maybe not explain it to him, but just confront him with this question. Authentic artists and philosophers, as if they were prophets, have to try to expose the true meaning of their existence. For the Russian creator, the artist is someone who has had access to an absolute truth and feels the urgent need to communicate it to humanity. “The idea of infinity – he writes – cannot be expressed in words, it cannot even be described. But art provides this possibility, makes infinity attainable. The absolute can only be accessed through faith and creative activity.”