About 20 years ago, they say a meteorite fell here. It razed the settlement. They searched for it, but they found nothing, of course.

Why “of course”?

Then people began to vanish. Finally, it was decided —

- Well?

Finally, it was decided that this meteorite was not quite a meteorite. So, for a start they put up barbed wire to stop the inquisitive taking risks. Then rumors began that somewhere in the Zone there’s a place where desires come true. Well, naturally, they started to guard the Zone like a treasure. For who knows what desires a person might have? 

Stalker (1979) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky filming Stalker, 1979. Photos by Gueorgui Pinkhassov.

Stalker - Сталкер

Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979

Andrei Tarkovsky’s final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape, and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide—the Stalker—leads a writer and a scientist into the heart of the Zone, the restricted site of a long-ago disaster, where the three men eventually zero in on the Room, a place rumored to fulfill one’s most deeply held desires. Adapting a science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Tarkovsky created an immersive world with a wealth of material detail and a sense of organic atmosphere. A religious allegory, a reflection of contemporaneous political anxieties, a meditation on film itself—Stalker envelops the viewer by opening up a multitude of possible meanings.

STALKER

Stalker | Andrei Tarkovsky | 1979

Stalker (1979)

Stalker (Сталкер) ⇨1979