The article analyzes the fundamentals of the moral philosophy of Andrei Tarkovsky, a unique Russian film director, thinker and art theorist whose films are recognized as masterpieces of screen culture along with the works of M. Antonioni, I. Bergman, L. Bunuel, L. Visconti, A. Kurosawa, F. Truffaut, F. Fellini, S. Eisenstein and others. The subject under study is the idea of self-sacrifice in Tarkovsky’s works as a distinctive “code” of his spiritual heritage. A believer, he sought in art, as well as in the Bible, answers to the question "how to live?" Creator of an original artistic world, Tarkovsky dwelled upon such vital philosophical categories as “life and death”, “faith and faithlessness”, “man’s spiritual existence”, “problems of conscience”, “self-sacrifice”, etc. This is evidenced not only by his screen works, but also archives, diaries and theoretical works, by use of which the author provides their own interpretation of the philosophy of Tarkovsky’s work focusing on the idea of self-sacrifice and the specifics of its artistic interpretation. The artist's mission is not only to strive for the insight into being but also to influence the spiritual development of a person in order to contribute to the improvement of the wide world. Andrey Tarkovsky had made his contribution to the harmonization of the human existence and the world, which 35 years after the great artist was gone has become due to globalization and digitalization much more open to dialogue. But when it comes to moral level it’s an open question… .