Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov journeys through Italy with his interpreter Eugenia to research the life of an 18th-century Russian composer who once lived abroad. Isolated and consumed by an unrelenting longing for his homeland, Andrei becomes drawn to Domenico, a radical mystic obsessed with spiritual redemption. Through austere imagery and extended temporal rhythms, Tarkovsky examines exile, memory, and the profound melancholy of being unable to belong fully to either place or language.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.8/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 74
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
Andrei Tarkovsky
Production
Sovinfilm, Opera Film Produzione, RAI
Cast
Oleg Yankovskiy, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano, Patrizia Terreno, Laura De Marchi, Delia Boccardo, Milena Vukotić, Raffaele Di Mario, Rate Furlan, Livio Galassi, Elena Magoia, Piero Vida
Where to watch
Klassiki, Kino Film Collection
Curator Review
Verdict
A demanding but deeply rewarding Tarkovsky work: meditative, visually transcendent, and emotionally precise about exile, memory, faith, and the ache of not belonging. It’s best approached as a poetic experience rather than a conventional drama.
Best for
viewers who love slow cinema and long takes
fans of spiritual or philosophical filmmaking
people drawn to films about exile, homesickness, and memory
audiences who appreciate austere, image-driven cinema
Skip if
you want a plot-heavy or fast-moving story
you dislike ambiguity and symbolic storytelling
you are impatient with extended takes and minimal exposition
you prefer emotionally direct romance or conventional drama
Overview
Nostalgia is one of Tarkovsky’s most intimate films, yet it remains stubbornly elusive. It follows a man moving through Italy while mentally living elsewhere, and that split between place and self becomes the film’s central wound. The result is less a narrative than a sustained state of longing, where memory, faith, and identity blur into one another.
Worth noting
What makes it so powerful is the precision of its mood. The images are spare but haunted, and the pacing forces you to sit inside the character’s isolation rather than observe it from a distance. Tarkovsky turns silence, weather, ruins, and ritual into emotional language, making the film feel like a prayer that cannot quite be answered.
Bottom line
This is not an easy watch, and it does not try to be. But for viewers willing to meet it on its own terms, it offers a rare kind of cinematic immersion: beautiful, severe, and devastatingly human. It lingers because it understands nostalgia not as sentimentality, but as a spiritual condition.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Eli Hayes (5★) · 1923 likes
"Feelings unspoken are unforgettable."
Every single one of Andrei Tarkovsky's films are contenders for my favorite film of all-time. Every single one of them. However, this is the one that speaks to me the most strongly, the most personally. It reminds me of my father, who passed away only a short two years ago. It reminds me of my home, which I love and miss so dearly. It reminds me of my past, my childhood. There is so much going… more
Marcissus (5★) · 1547 likes
[five minutes into watching an English translation of nostalgia]
tarkovsky: nothing can be translated. art is untranslateable
me: oh
Andre de Nervaux (5★) · 1457 likes
The last shot is easily one of the greatest shots I've seen in cinematic history
Chris 🍉 (5★) · 905 likes
me: math is so simple lol 1+1=2
andrei tarkovsky: one drop plus one drop makes one bigger drop... not 2
me: holy FUCK HE'S RIGHT????
Vadim Rizov (3★) · 696 likes
[deep breath] There are people who believe the idea of Godard making an unsuccessful film is purely hypothetical, and they get very upset with intellectually-underperforming philistines who aren't with the program, a level of dedication with a certain level of faith-investment I find hard to muster. That commitment goes for Tarkovsky too, but (ulp) I'm an agnostic. So look: Nostalghia is gorgeous, in non-maximalist ways that have to do with slivers of light and shade reflected on the tiniest of… more [deep breath] There are people who believe the idea of Godard making an unsuccessful film is purely hypothetical, and they get very upset with intellectually-underperforming philistines who aren't with the program, a level of dedication with a certain level of faith-investment I find hard to muster. That commitment goes for Tarkovsky too, but (ulp) I'm an agnostic. So look: Nostalghia is gorgeous, in non-maximalist ways that have to do with slivers of light and shade reflected on the tiniest of… more