From children’s cinema to documentalist aesthetics: Antarctica, Faraway Country by Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei Konchalovsky

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article forms the introduction to the publication of the script Antarctica, faraway country. The script was written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei (Mikhalkov)-Konchalovsky during their student days and completed in the early 1960s; however, the script was never realised and belongs to the category of ‘unrealised scripts’. The article traces the origins of the idea for the script and places them in the context of Soviet cinema of the Thaw, before investigating the transformation that the script underwent in the 1960s, when both filmmakers and scriptwriters had already established their reputation with their debut films. These changes are highlighted through an analysis of a key scene, before the article demonstrates in detail how the changes to the script versions of 1960 and 1966 reflect a shift in Tarkovsky’s vision of man in the universe, and specifically his relation to nature, whilst pointing towards similar concerns in Tarkovsky’s later films.