Andrei Tarkovsky’s films are meditative excursions, expansive, breathtaking, and contemplative. When watching his films, you enter a space where time expands, nature exhales, and silence glistens with meaning. At the center of Tarkovsky’s work, is a profound exploration of spirituality; not spirituality in a narrow religious sense, but a responsive inquiry into being, faith and the search for a meaning that transcends the material world.
A Poet of Time and Spirit
Tarkovsky did not just make films; he made cinematic poetry, and like poets, he struggled to represent the non-essential. His style resists typical narrative speed, and does not contain expressions of fast action. He invites us to consider a state of reflection, in which each image, each sound is imbued with meaning. Furthermore, time is represented as fluid, and layered; it is rarely linear. This temporal approach suggests a spiritual approach to existence that manifests in traditions that view life as cyclical or eternal; rather than as chronological icons of past events.
Tarkovsky viewed film as a means of accessing the metaphysical. His work is rich with a feeling of reverence towards nature, memory, and dreams, which also advocated for a negotiation between the physical and a wider unseen reality. Tarkovsky stated that cinema was a way to “sculpt time” that expresses his intention not simply to represent time, but to mold time; to create a sensibility in which viewers might feel a glimpse into the eternal.
The Spiritual Heart of Tarkovsky’s Films
Take “Andrei Rublev” (1966) for example. The film is inspired (loosely) by early medieval Russian painter Andrei Rublev, who is an icon painter. Within what is a historical drama lies the examination of faith, doubt, creativity and the role of the artist in society in relation to the reception of their work. One of the film’s distinguishing characteristics is its extreme, often savage, stark reality and juxtaposition of harsh realities, moments of transcendence, beauty, and deep spiritual understanding. The pacing is slow, and many of the shots seem to linger, inviting patience and openness of the viewer, much like the long distance a pilgrim must travel to even begin to comprehend their spiritual destination.
In much the same vein, “Stalker” (1979) conveys the theme of faith and human desire in association with a mysterious Zone said to grant their deepest wishes. The character’s trek through the Zone is not simply a journey toward material gain, but an invitation into the depths of the naked unknown of the human spirit. The film’s speaker is little more than a set of powerful and painfully discordant images. The stillness, quiet tension, and minimal dialogue elicit an extraordinary mood that evokes the esoteric. In this film, the questions are more important than the answers.
In “The Mirror” (1975), Tarkovsky masterfully weaves together his own memories, dreams, and historical representations in a nonlinear format. “The Mirror” presents a work that goes beyond the genre of autobiography, a true exploration of time and identity as a spiritual experience across generations. The fluid shifts between past and present, in this film regarding the past, shows contentious evidence that memory connects the earthbound realm to the transcendent realm.
Beyond Religion Spirituality
It is important to recognize that although many of Tarkovsky’s films contain Christian imagery, and themes stemming from Russian Orthodoxy, his spirituality is not boxed-in by any one immutable tradition. Tarkovsky’s spiritual cinema develops and processes ideas that speak to a universal search for meaning, authority, the sacred, and the numinous. One cannot underestimate the depth of love and admiration Tarkovsky holds for what could be described as Eastern spirituality, or Eastern thought, as well as the love and admiration he shows to the strong influence of the work of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke upon his films.
What Tarkovsky aches against is spirituality that is reduced to dogma or doctrine. Instead, he invites viewers to a personal experiential relationship with the mystery-ridden existence. In his films, and by the experience created, he opens a space of feeling rather than answering questions on God, life, and death; slowing people down to consider what lies beneath the surface reality of existence.
Silence, Nature, and the Sacred
Another feature in Tarkovsky’s spirituality is his use of silence and nature. He often stayed longer than most filmmakers in sequences that contained water, fire, air, and earth – the elements of nature that can both destroy and renew. These elements are not simply scenery; they have profound significance and point to the rhythm, cycles, and renewal of life, death, and being.
When we experience silence through Tarkovsky’s films, we are not experiencing emptiness, we experience presence—a presence where one can sense the unknown. When we do not have sound or dialogue, it is an inward listening to depths beyond the visible. This can be seen in reflections seen in “Nostalgia” (1983), where the protagonist is seeking the comforts of being whole again, for them, this is situated in home; home that is revealed in shots that either contain silence or imagery of silence.
The Artist as Spiritual Voyager
Tarkovsky made clear he considered the artist, as a religious figure, a sort of prophet or guide. He considered that art was capable of revealing the truth and when it has done its job contribute to spiritual awakening. In contrast, entertainment offers distraction or superficial entertainment; he considered the art he promoted and practiced, he wants to be participatory and contemplative. He wanted films that would “cleanse the eyes” so they would see and be deeply and truthfully present in the world.
The idea is not far removed from his most cited contemplation on film—“sculpting time.” Through art, Tarkovsky sought to give form to invisible energies that shape human existence: memory, faith, hope, suffering, and so forth. It is clear in his films when he uses silence, and other experiences to draw out a viewer to slow down to watch for the feelings of these energies in ourselves and within our being and world.
The Lasting Impact of Tarkovsky’s Spirituality
Although Tarkovsky’s work was controversial during his lifetime (largely due to censorship in the Soviet Union, and misunderstanding from so many viewers) and equally ambiguous in his mind, today his films have many followers on a global scale and this global community – made up of viewers who find spiritual connection in the ‘spirituality of film’ – is growing. Spiritual engagement as I understand it in relation to cinema in a fast paced, distracted, and activity based world is alive and well. To experience Tarkovsky’s films is to spiritually resist the superficial distractions of life. It is a call to return to a sacred moment in existence.
His legacy and influence go beyond film, and surely will reach to artists, philosophers, and other communities of spiritual seekers. He argued film could be a sacred art form, allowing contemplation and engagement with some of the deepest questions about human existence.
Final Reflections
Through the experience of Tarkovsky’s films, we enter a space where ‘time’ is slowed, the spiritual reality meets the material reality, and the viewer is invited to reflect on the essential depths of the human experience. Tarkovsky’s cinema does not give simple and easy answers, they offer contemplative space; contemplation invites engagement with the mystery of life.
In a world that focuses on noise and existence on the surface of being, Tarkovsky’s work is a humble, silent reminder of the spiritual nature of silence, nature, and seeing. He encourages us to look beyond the visible, and to listen to the whispers of the soul.
