Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (4 April 1932[1] – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet Russian film director, screenwriter, and film theorist. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films explore spiritual and metaphysical themes, and are noted for their slow pacing and long takes, dreamlike visual imagery, and preoccupation with nature and memory.