What is the best Andrei Tarkovsky movie of all time?

Few directors have made cinema feel as spiritual, hypnotic, and slow-burning as Tarkovsky. His seven features span war, memory, faith, and the cosmos — and every one is considered essential by someone. Which is yours?

1

Stalker

A guide leads two men through a mysterious forbidden zone where a room is said to grant one's deepest wishes.

2

Solaris

A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a mysterious planet where the crew is haunted by physical manifestations of their memories.

3

Andrei Rublev

An epic portrait of the 15th-century Russian icon painter navigating faith, art, and human suffering during a brutal historical era.

4

The Mirror

A fragmented, dreamlike meditation on memory, war, and the Russian landscape told through a dying man's recollections.

5

The Sacrifice

On the eve of nuclear war, a middle-aged man makes a desperate bargain with God to save the world in Tarkovsky's final film.

6

Nostalghia

A Russian poet travels through Italy researching a forgotten 18th-century composer and becomes consumed by exile and longing.

7

Ivan's Childhood

A haunting war film following a 12-year-old boy working as a spy for Soviet forces on the Eastern Front during WWII.