Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My friend and I saw the Russian director Tarkovsky's 1986 film "The Sacrifice" last week.  It was long and slow moving, with long shots and a mystery about it.  It's dated in some ways, but still thought provoking and haunting.  A famous actor and writer is planting a tree with his young son, who is recovering from a throat operation and cannot yet speak.  The man, Alexander, is a chatterbox, and tells a Zen story about a monk who seems to accomplish little in his life, but has a ritual of watering a tree every day.  The point being that the ritual itself is his achievement.  Alexander seems to have only words to offer his silent son.  That and his clearly passionate love.  They return to the house where his wife, stepdaughter and the doctor who is a friend are, and eventually an annoucement on the television seems to mean there has been a nuclear war and the earth is being destroyed.  Alexander prays to God.  He will do anything to save his family, including never seeing his beloved son again.  A postman who is a friend has stopped by and tells Alexander of a good witch, who is their servant.  He goes to her and she takes pity on him and they unite physically elevated above the floor.  When he returns the next day, all is as if the threat of war had never been.  Alexander sends everybody off to look for the son and burns down the house.  An ambulance comes and men grab Alexander and take him to a mental facility.  He has kept his promise.  But was everything a dream?  I'm struck by how words don't have any weight, only Alexander's actions matter.  Men have only their actions to guide their children.  Very existential, but profound as well.  Right speech, according to Tarkovsky, must be supported by right action.  At the end of the film, the boy is watering the tree he and his father have planted at the beginning.