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THE LAST DAYS OF ANDREI TARKOVSKY

LES DERNIERS JOURS D'ANDREÏ TARKOVSKI

By Jérôme AMIMER

LEITMOTIV PRODUCTION - as PROD

Biography - Development 2024

Was Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the greatest filmmakers of the Soviet Union who died of cancer, poisoned by KGB agents? This film relates this hypothesis to the sacrificial dimension of the filmmaker. An anticipation also on Putin's Russia.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- Biography, Art - Culture, Documentary
- Countries
- FRANCE
- Languages
- FRENCH, RUSSIAN, ENGLISH, ITALIAN, SWEDISH
- Budget
- 0.6 - 1 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Jérôme AMIMER
- Writer(s)
- Jérôme AMIMER, Pierre François MOREAU
- Cast
- Marina VLADY, Domiziana GIORDANO, Larissa GUERRA, Andreï A. TARKOVSKY
- Producer(s)
- Jérôme AMIMER (LEITMOTIV PRODUCTION), Stéphane JOURDAIN (LA HUIT PRODUCTION), Julie DAVAINNE (LES FILMS DÉPLANIFIÉS)
- Synopsis
- Cannes Film Festival, May 1986, The Sacrifice of Andreï Tarkovsky won three prizes, awarded to his son Andreï, 15, while his ill father was in Paris. At the Festival Palace it's a party, in Moscow we savor our revenge.
  
  Four years earlier, in March 1982, Tarkovsky was authorized to go to Italy to film Nostalghia, an Italian-Soviet co-production. His wife Larissa joins him while his son Andreï Junior, 12 years old, is held in Moscow. Tarkovsky fights for his son to join them, the Kremlin uses all means to bring him back to the USSR. In Italy, a support committee was created. In March 1985, the filmmaker who came to Sweden to film The Sacrifice threatened a hunger strike in front of the Soviet embassy in Stockholm. He meets Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme. He writes to President Reagan.
  In January 1986, Moscow finally authorized Andreï Junior to join his father. The Western press sees this as a sign of East-West détente. Moscow no longer has reasons to hold back its son, Tarkovsky has paid his debt, he is going to die.
  
  Stockholm, November 1985. Tarkovsky mounts The Sacrifice. He is alone at the hotel. On television in France he denounces Kremlin policy and supports the Sakharov dissidents. His presence on this show seems to have sealed his fate. A KGB agent may have broken into his hotel room, put poison on his clothes or in a drink.
  
  November 11, Tarkovsky feels bad, he coughs up blood. A suspicious lump appears on his shoulder blade, another on his skull. The day before he left for Paris, an X-ray of his lungs revealed a dark spot. Is this poisoning? Back in Stockholm, Tarkovsky suffers martyrdom. He knows he is on the KGB blacklist, he refuses to seek treatment. His friend, the cellist Rostropovitch, dissuades him and promises to obtain the protection of Ronald Reagan. December 23, 1985, Tarkovsky leaves Stockholm. His wife Larissa makes an appointment in Paris with Professor Léon Schwartzenberg.
  Two years earlier, on November 22, 1983 in Rome, producer Nikolai Sizov, who co-produced Nostalghia before attempting to sabotage it, had clearly warned him: in the Kremlin, it was considered that Tarkovsky had committed a serious mistake. What Tarkovsky does not know is that Sizov is also a general in the Soviet intelligence service, the MVD, which deals with espionage and bacteriological research. The secret services don't like traitors; Sizov was Tarkovsky's producer and perhaps executioner.
  
  Tarkovsky must have suspected this threat; he mentions it in The Sacrifice. Tarkovsky embodied the revival of Soviet cinema, so it’s not just a loss. For the State, it is a non-return on investment, a motive to eliminate it.
  Neuilly December 29, 1986, Andreï Tarkovsky died of lung cancer. At least that's the official version. The Tarkovsky case heralds suspicious deaths in Putin's Russia. Navalny, Politkovskaya, Prigogine. Today, like yesterday, to betray is always to die!
- Partners & financing
- COPRODUCTEURS/ CO-PRODUCERS
  LEITMOTIV PRODUCTION (France)
  LA HUIT PRODUCTION (France)
  LES FILMS DÉPLANIFIÉS (France)
  
  FINANCING PLAN
  PROVISIONAL BUDGET : € 750 000
  REMAINDER TO BE FINANCED : € 695 000
  
  avec le soutien/ with the support of
  de la Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine/ the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region
  de la Région Normandie/ the Normandy Region
  en partenariat avec le CNC/in partnership with the CNC
- Production schedule
- 2024
  - Search for partners in France, Italy, Sweden, etc.
  - Locations France, Italy, Sweden.
  - Meeting with the main expected stakeholders.
  - Writing the film script.
  - Editing a trailer.
  2025
  -Shooting and editing
  2026
  - World premiere at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival
  - Worldwide cinema release for the 40th anniversary of the release of the film The Sacrifice (1986)
- Beginning of shooting
- May 24, 2025
- End of shooting
- Nov 20, 2025