Andrei Rublev

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

1966 / 183min / DCP

The story of Rublev (Anatoly Solonitsyn), a medieval icon painter and Russian Orthodox monk who struggled against rampant brutality to produce works praising God, becomes, in Tarkovsky’s hands, the story of art and artists, for all times. (And perhaps particularly his own: the film would be banned by Soviet officials for “historical inaccuracy.”) Imagined incidents from Rublev’s life—of which very little is known—are rendered in brilliant black-and-white widescreen, exquisitely composed, until the paean to unbending faith erupts unforgettably into transcendent affirmation.