Stories from the set

The film was shown semi-legally in May 1969 at the Cannes Film Festival, and it was only released in Soviet distribution in December 1971.

The film's original title was "The Passion According to Andrei".

The director's cut of the film runs 205 minutes.

The skomorokh's chastushkas, performed by Rolan Bykov, were written by him himself. While preparing for the role, the actor researched the matter and found that authentic chastushkas of that era invariably contain profanity.

Tarkovsky planned to include in the film a story about the Battle of Kulikovo with large-scale battle scenes, but due to budget problems he was forced to abandon this idea.

Anatoly Solonitsyn remained silent for four months for the filming of the episode of taking a vow of silence, so that his voice would sound hoarse.

Filming took place on the territories of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve, in Pskov and the Pskov region, Izborsk, Pechory, near the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery and in the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir, where the film crew accidentally started a real fire.

The idea for the film's staging originally belonged to Vasily Livanov, who dreamed of playing the lead role himself.

There were many cases of animal cruelty during filming: in one of the deleted scenes a cow was burned alive, in another a horse's throat was cut.

The protagonist of the film "A Film About Alexeyev" (2014) ends up on the set of the film "Andrei Rublev".