Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) is a great Russian film director, one of the creators of cinema as an independent and original genre of art, the author of a cinematic universe recognizable from the very first frame. The exceptional musicality, pictorial plasticity and meaningful mystery of his eight films continue to attract new generations of viewers to them to this day. The proposed biography is the first detailed book about the life and meaning of A. Tarkovsky's life. Contents: Cover 1 Illustrations 3 Title page 69 Biblical profile (instead of a preface) 71 What is mysticism? 76Pedigree 78Childhood. Parents 83 Father - son 93 “There are more important things than happiness...” 112 The secret of the father is the secret of the son 122 “I owe everything in life to my mother...” 142 Growing up 154 The skating rink and the violin: memory and premonition 159 The Lion of Venice, or Life as a Hallucination 166 A short digression about Zen 176 “Andrew's Passion” 181Meditation-I 196Andrew's Passion, or the Beginning of Golgotha 197Meditation-II 218Repentance 220Home 250Confession 268Meditation-III 301Hamlet 306Chronicle of a Pursuit 319Stalker 336Departure to Italy 346Fatherland and Charisma 363 "Nostalgia" 374Between East and West 384Nostalgia 390Calvary 398The Journey of the Exile 412Sacrifice 418Reunion and farewell 432Epilogue 442Meditation-IV 444Judgements and opinions 446