A great film. I'll never forget when I first saw this (and other films by Tarkovsky) in a Channel 4 season of his work in the late 1980s (in the UK). I was only about 11 or 12 at the time, but I found his work hypnotic. I realised I was a slightly "special" child when my classmates were significantly less captivated by bleak existential Russian trudges than I was (when I recommended they take a look at the remaining films in the Tarkovsky season). But I guess Tarkovsky is a hard sell to most 11 year olds. :)