Andrei Tarkovsky is the most celebrated Russian filmmaker since Eisenstein and one of the most important directors to have emerged during the 1960s and 70s Sean Martin considers the whole of Tarkovsky s oeuvre from the classic student film The Steamroller and the Violin across the full length films to the later stage works and Tarkovsky s writings paintings and photographs Martin also seeks to demystify Tarkovsky as a difficult director whilst also celebrating his radical aesthetic of long takes and tracking shots which Tarkovsky was to dub imprinted or sculpted time and to make a case for Tarkovsky s position not just as an important filmmaker but also as an artist who speaks directly about the most important spiritual issues of our time