The Mirror

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The Mirror

Released Jan 1, 1975

1h 48m

Drama

Biography

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100%

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29 Reviews

91%

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5,000+ Ratings

Using a nonlinear structure interlaced with dreams and flashbacks, director Andrei Tarkovsky creates a stream-of-consciousness meditation on war, memory and time that draws heavily on events from his own life. Tarkovsky's film alter ego is Alexei (Ignat Daniltsev), a dying man in his 40s whose commonplace interactions with his wife (Margarita Terekhova) and children summon up a host of memories, ranging from his parents' divorce to his time on the battlefields of World War II.

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Adam Kempenaar

Filmspotting

Tarkovsky exhibits an unmatched ability to transform the mundane into the miraculous.

Rated: 4.5/5

May 12, 2023

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Kate Muir

The Times (UK)

The Mirror deserves a big-screen viewing, with its smorgasbord of memories in dream, drama and newsreel form from the life of a dying poet.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 15, 2015

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Anthony Lane

The New Yorker

The smallest details (a stammering child, the wrinkle in the turned page of a book) stick like burrs, and we are left to wonder if any director has delved with more modesty and honesty into the heartbreak of the past.

Aug 4, 2015

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Julian Singleton

Cinapse

Mirror boldly erases the formal and metaphysical boundaries between director, subject, and audience, creating a film about memory that feels as much lived by its viewers as it was by its creators.

Jul 12, 2025

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Brendan Cassidy

InSession Film

The Mirror is a masterwork of personal storytelling...

Rated: B+

Jun 18, 2024

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Dave Giannini

InSession Film

Tarkovsky's most difficult, and possible, most personal work.

Rated: A

Feb 28, 2024

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Julian Rex M

Wholly, impregnably abstruse but radiant with Tarkovsky competence, The Mirror is a labyrinthian meditation on life, time, and death that is just as likely to alienate its (minuscule) audience as it is to engross them.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

07/13/25

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Thomas S

A movie that stays with you. The way I saw it, The Mirror tells the story of a dying man remembering his life — perhaps in his final moments. Just as in dreams or memories, events intertwine, unravel, and appear in disorder. One scene that particularly stuck with me was the one with the chicken — perhaps a symbol of everything the protagonist didn't want to do in his life but was forced to by society.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/06/25

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Esra Y

Is Mirror the movie Tarkovsky makes himself most vulnerable, or a mirage he gifts us to experience? Either way whenever i sit down to watch, Mirror is a captivating piece of art.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/10/25

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Gabriel E. B

Las respuestas no importan. La vida son recuerdos, creíbles, improbables, el rastro de todo lo que me ha traído hasta aquí, al presente. Mirror es una construcción de ensueño, de experiencias, con un tono de realidad, de intensidad; una vida con miedos, con suspenso, con ganas de avanzar, de vivir. No hay explicación, solo fragmentos, con cierta convergencia, con nostalgia, con poesía, con tormento. Es una obra muy personal; todos los cineastas deberían tener un encuentro con ella.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

04/01/25

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Ian S

One of Tarkovsky's less accessible movies and maybe bordering on pretentiousness at times but it wins out on the great visuals and artistry of the overall film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/25/25

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Dušan A

Some memorable shots and bits of poetry, but otherwise did not speak to me

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

11/18/24

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Andrei Tarkovsky

Director

Margarita Terekhova

Mother

Anatoliy Solonitsyn

Forensic doctor

Nikolay Grinko

Director of printery

Ignat Daniltsev

Aleksei, age 12

Filipp Yankovsky

Aleksei, age 5

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Synopsis

Using a nonlinear structure interlaced with dreams and flashbacks, director Andrei Tarkovsky creates a stream-of-consciousness meditation on war, memory and time that draws heavily on events from his own life. Tarkovsky's film alter ego is Alexei (Ignat Daniltsev), a dying man in his 40s whose commonplace interactions with his wife (Margarita Terekhova) and children summon up a host of memories, ranging from his parents' divorce to his time on the battlefields of World War II.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Producer: Erik Waisberg
Screenwriter: Andrei Tarkovsky, Aleksandr Misharin
Production Co: Mosfilm Unit 4, Doco Digital
Genre: Drama, Biography
Original Language: Russian
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 1, 1975, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 2, 2009
Runtime: 1h 48m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

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