I was always asking myself why the impression of the movie is so long-lasting and does not allow you to forget it with the run of time. I believe its effect is such because of the eternal issues it touches upon, the issues of life and death; love and hate; inner freedom and duty; longing for the native land and inability to integrate into an alien community, yet feeling oneself as an integral part of the Christina world (a Russian homestead nestled inside an Italian cathedral as you perfectly point it out), inability to fight the inconsistency between the inner and outer world (meeting with the mad man and his speech)….

I would mention many a wonderful pieces of your review but it would take a long time and much space.

As to the shots of Andrei “struggling to carry a lit candle from one end of a drained pool to another”, let me try to express my opinion. In the Russian Orthodox Christianity there is a tradition according to which it is necessary to carry a lit candle from a church to home on the Great Thursday or here we call it Net Thursday. It happens between the morning and evening liturgy.

The Russian Orthodox Church considers it to be a symbol of great love to the Savior. Religious people normally keep the remainder of the candle the entire year and believe that if a person does not mange to carry the lit candle home a disaster might happen to that person and if he/she manages to carry it safe the person will live safe the whole year till the next Easter.

It seems to me this belief and tradition was employed by Tarkovsky in this episode, one of the most impressing and enchanting episodes of the movie.

Let me express my gratitude to you for an excellent review.