[This book] concentrates on the same sort of “burning issues” (bolnye voprosy) about spirituality, art and the human condition that tormented Tarkovsky’s literary gurus: Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Put together from “pieces of chapters,” notes in diary form, lectures, discussions with the critic Olga Surkova; interspersed with stills from his films; and loaded with quotations from the most diverse sources, including the Bible and the poems of his father, Arseniy Tarkovsky, this provocative collage of ruminations soars far above the tawdry world of politics and the petty details of daily life.

From the Los Angeles Times review by Harlow Robinson