Offret
FROM 25 Oct
The setting is a Bergmanesque summer house in Sweden, in which Bergman's own repertory player Erland Josephson plays Alexander, a retired actor and author of great distinction, who is about to celebrate a sombre and faintly melancholy birthday in the company of his beautiful English-born wife Adelaide (Susan Fleetwood), along with children, servants, friends and locals.
A radio announcement warns of an imminent nuclear apocalypse and that night Alexander begs God to spare the world and in return he will destroy his family and everything he holds dear.
The next morning everything has returned to normal and it is apparently now up to Alexander to fulfil his side of the bargain with God.
Andrei Tarkovsky died in the year of the release of this brilliant and audacious swansong.
