Page - 120 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/02

Review: Le sacrifice d’Andreï Tarkovski | 119www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/2, 117–120 sequence of the film – the little boy carrying buckets, walking on the seaside and watering a tree – receives special attention (263–271) because it involves a rich set of questions about aspects that are central to the study: the relation between Alexander and his son, which can metaphorically relate to the rela- tion between God and his son, Jesus; the expectation that the boy will continue caring about the tree even without immediate results, evoking the centrality of belief; or the boy’s enigmatic question, “Why is that, Papa?”, resounding as an existential interrogation about the world and the position of mankind itself. The ensuing analysis (272–337) focuses on several major recurring themes studied transversally and comparatively: for example, the protagonists’ sleep and dreams, time’s reversibility, silence and mystery, love and sacrifice ex- pressed and manifested by the protagonists, and insanity (in relation to the figure of Alexander). The last part of this long chapter is a discussion of several episodes that can convey divergent meanings. Among many thought-provoking points (such as whether there was a “real” nuclear disaster or not, or whether time was actually reversed by Alexander’s “sacrifice”), the interesting question is raised of whether the world has actually been “saved” because of Alexan- der’s prayer and sacrifice (through God’s grace) or because of Maria’s – pre- sented as a “witch” – supernatural intervention (323–324). Judiciously, while exploring thoroughly the different hermeneutic options and their implications, the author does not offer any definitive interpretation. The third part (339–426), “enjeux théologiques”, takes the film as inspiration to explore various theological issues specific to the second half of the 20th cen- tury, relating to themes such as images, eschatology, apocalypse, and sacrifice. Here, the goal is not to analyze or explain the film but to reflect on broader questions arising from the film at the intersection of cinema and theology. The author offers elaborate theological discussions, for example on love and reason (409–415), that can certainly be of interest for someone specializing in (practi- cal) theology. The whole study is extremely detailed and provides a solid guide to the in- terpretation of religious or spiritual themes in The Sacrifice and in Tarkovksy’s work more generally. One aspect might deserve further research (maybe in a follow-up study): while a Christian hermeneutic framework is largely justified by numerous explicit references to Christian symbols, one might wonder if, at times, this is not too narrow. There are indeed a number of possible non- Christian sources of inspiration for elements that can be characterized as “spir- itual” – a crucial notion that deserves a more precise contextualization, and sooner (in the introduction) rather than later (362–366). As the author notes, there are Japanese themes running throughout the movie (the tree, the Japa- nese flute in the soundtrack etc.). They can be an invitation to analyze them not only as foreign cultural traits but also as allusions to Zen Buddhist (the idea of