Andrei Tarkovsky

Known for: Stalker (1979), The Mirror (1975)

Andrei Tarkovsky directed seven feature films over a career in sustained conflict with Soviet film authorities, who found his metaphysical concerns incompatible with socialist realism. His films — Andrei Rublev (1966), The Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979) — treat cinema as a medium for sculpting time rather than narrating events. He defected to the West in 1984 and died in Paris two years later.