A SPOILER warning has been issued.
Loosely based on Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic, Tarkovsky's 1979 film depicts the journey of three men, unnamed but referred to as the Stalker, the Writer and the Professor, through a mysterious wilderness named The Zone, travelling towards The Room which is said to fulfill the deepest wishes of anyone who enters.
The lush green wilderness of The Zone is scattered with decaying buildings, remnant broken-down tanks, rusted firearms, and religious iconography. Outside The Zone is filmed, mostly, in a grim black and white within an industrial and somewhat post-apocalyptic setting. Tarkovsky fills the movie with slow, lengthy tracking shots and frames each shot in deliberate, meticulously choreographed compositions of each actor's movements, standing and faces. The laborious, troublesome journey is supplemented with a haunting score by Eduard Artemyev.
LEFT: Can't figure out the metaphor
RIGHT: Needs a little dusting
Each of the three men have their own motivations for travelling into The Zone, the Professor: for knowledge, the Writer: for inspiration and the Stalker: as a duty. By the time they arrive at The Room deeper motivations are exposed. The story of a previous Stalker is revealed, a mentor named Porcupine, who became rich from entering The Room. Porcupine's brother died while within The Zone and everytime Porcupine asks for his brother's life back, he instead receives more riches. He hung himself soon after.
Tarkovsky's Stalker is generally concerned with the nature of faith. The journey towards The Room, the Stalker, representing a holy clergyman, applies seemingly arbitrary rules to follow which end up being constantly broken. He eventually confesses that his Stalker role provides himself a sense of purpose in an otherwise mundane life. It is telling that as they arrive to the edge of The Room no one is willing or able to step inside and avoid confronting their beliefs. Would the power of The Zone exist without their belief? The final moments reveal that the Stalker's daughter, born disfigured from his constant trips within The Zone, possesses supernatural ability.
RATING
Highly Recommended
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