Tarkovsky was the mentor of AlexanderSokurov, and his masterpiece Solaris exemplifies the strain in Russian filmmakingthat finds a kind of secular metaphysics in art. The story follows psychologistChris Kelvin on a voyage to the planet Solaris where, scientists believe, theocean's surface has an intelligence that can absorb human memory and materializethe objects of our thoughts. When Kelvin joins the Solaris project's cosmonautshe finds them maddened from years of cohabitating with their unconscious desires.Kelvin himself becomes host to the presence of his dead wife and seems doomed torelive both the passion and the loss associated with her memory. "Outerspace" plays almost no part in Tarkovsky's science fiction, which relies onwidescreen composition to paint a landscape of the mind. Tarkovsky initiates usinto the secret of Solaris: like the oceans of the distant planet, the cinemaserves up the most poetic longings of the imagination.