Nostalghia

Andrei Tarkovsky explained that in Russian the word nostalghia conveys “the love for your homeland and the melancholy that arises from being far away.” This debilitating form of homesickness is embodied in his film about Russian intellectual Andrei Gorchakov doing research in Italy, who becomes obsessed with the Botticelli-like beauty of his translator Eugenia, as well as with the apocalyptic ramblings of a self-destructive wanderer named Domenico. Written with frequent Michelangelo Antonioni collaborator Tonino Guerra (L’Avventura), this mystical and mysterious collision of East and West incorporates an unnamed German Shepherd in a small role—a quiet nod to Tarkovsky's own pup and broader love of dogs.