Andrei Tarkovsky’s film about the great Medieval Russian Orthodox icon painter is a fractured journey, showing disparate episodes from Rublev’s life instead of following a traditional narrative arc. These include Rublev’s conversation with Theophanes, a cynical artist; a sequence in which he stumbles upon a pagan bacchanal; and the epic story of a young bellmaker in which Rublev plays only a cameo role. Andrei Rublev is an epic meditation on the value of art and beauty in a savage world. – Tyler J. Petty