In some cultures it is said that if someone manages to cross a lake with a lit candle, it may still be possible for them to save the world, as the poet tried to do in Andrej Tarkovsky's film Nostalgia in the final scenes, shortly before he died. This tribute to both Tarkovskys, father and son, was filmed by Daniel Blaufuks on the main island of the Azores, days before the pandemic reached Europe.

[In And All Will Be Repeated,] Daniel Blaufuks repeats or replicates the penultimate shot of Nostalgia (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1983), in which Gorchakov succeeds in crossing a stretch of water with a lit candle. He does so amidst voices saying (repeating) lines from a poem by Arseniy Tarkovsky, Andrey's father, "And this I dreamt, and this I dream". He then adds steam and mist, delays and cuts: the directions converge and the crossing becomes several or an invisible labyrinth.

[...] By crossing a body of water with a candle, in a game of movement to keep it lit all the way to the other side, Blaufuks' gesture is a nod to Tarkovsky's gesture " in both there is a disconsolation conveying an irresolvable lack as a precondition for existence" and, as in Nostalgia, it also represents the practice of a ritual, a gesture that is repeated with a desire for consequence: some say that if you can cross a watercourse with a candle and reach the other side without the flame going out, you might just be able to save the world."


(Eduardo Brito)