DER SPIEGEL: A Masterpiece of Poetic Cinema Combining Individual Memory and Russian History

The autobiographical work, alternating between film drama and film poem, combines elements of individual memory and Russian history.
DER SPIEGEL by Andrei Tarkowski tells a strongly autobiographical story in an associative form that begins in 1930 and lasts until the late 1970s. The protagonist is Alexei, a man in his forties who wants to take stock of his life so far. He is looking for lost time and his own identity. Even more consistently than in his other films, Tarkowski freed himself from the conventions of narrative cinema in his key film. Instead of a linear plot, he substitutes a free alternation of different time levels, thus combining non-narrative elements such as dream and memory images, visions and documentary material. This creates a fascinating film mosaic that brings the inner and outer world of the protagonist to the screen with virtuosity. The Russian film officials rejected the film as too confused and incomprehensible and initially banned showings abroad. But the apparently difficult film, which has also been described as «Russian AMARCORD», functions directly as a mirror of us as human beings. A masterpiece of poetic cinema.