Alexander, an ageing  artist, retires in Sweden on an island with his family. For his birthday, he plants a tree by the seashore with his mute son. Meanwhile the end of the world seems imminent…

For his seventh and last film, Andrei Tarkovski (Solaris, Stalker) travels to Sweden and with the help of Ingmar Bergman (who produced the film) and his comrades (actor Erland Josephson, cinematographer Sven Nykvist) signs a flamboyant testamental film, both universal and humanist, featuring the author’s obsessions. The apocalypse according to Andrei, the Jury’s Grand Prize at Cannes when it came out.