The Sacrifice underlines the spiritual struggle one goes through when faced with death, or rather the fear of death. Erland Josephson’s character Alexander, feels he must do something to save his family/humanity. In an act of desperation, he makes a useless sacrifice to God, and sleeps with a witch? Although, this film is beautifully shot, the story is a bit muddled. I’m sure Tarkovsky intended it to be that way, so that it would be open to interpretation. Josephson’s performance was brilliant, especially in the last 15 minutes of the film.