Born in New Zealand, I now live in Berlin. I’ve been a writer and programmer for a decade, but before I became involved in the film industry I was a language teacher. My first proper teaching post, in 2001, was in Prague. It was before the days of widespread laptop ownership, and I would frequent the screening room of a tatty little video rental store on Dlouhá Street to watch old movies. I saw Tarkovsky’s Mirror there one winter afternoon, discovering the most intuitive, poetic sequences ever made, such as a woman levitating above a bed as water cascades indoors. Devastating archival footage, of Red Army troops trudging through interminable mud, places this weave of childhood memories and dreams within the wider reverberations of Russia’s history. The sincerely spiritual might be out of fashion, but Tarkovsky’s fierce commitment to his creative vision – despite state obstruction – rests on the kind of integrity cinema must never lose.