Stalker

Stalker (Russian: Сталкер) [related: The Zone]
Seminal 1979 film by Andrei Tarkovsky loosely based on the 1972 novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The film outlines a journey in and out of The Zone ¹ , an alien-generated ² alternate reality physicalized as having color beyond the sepia lense used in the remainder of the film. Stalker centers largely on the almost immutable nature of core subconscious desire and the role of radioactive and chemical waste as conduits for the supernatural [see: Spiderman]. Due to various environmental and interpersonal conflicts, Stalker was shot three separate times ³ in areas rife with toxic pollution, consuming over 16,000 feet of film. In the years following the release of the film, Tarkovsky and a number of other members of the crew died of cancer of the right bronchial tube, including Larisa Tarkovskaya, the filmmaker's wife. Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, Stalker was not shot in the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation ⁴ —the 1986 nuclear disaster took place seven years after the film's release. Remarkably, however, the film alludes repeatedly to the [quote] "breakdown of the fourth bunker" and features numerous shots of distant power plants, adding credence to claims that Tarkovsky himself was clairvoyant⁵.

¹ And within The Zone is The Room - the full unveiling of damning desire. Ref# "Love Theme" from Stalker

² The origin of the Zone is never clearly delineated in the film - "alien" here refers to something of strange or unknown origin.

³ Crew from the film claim the second and third shootings are almost identical, with the only difference being the removal of Georgy Rerberg, the film's original cinematographer, from all crediting materials.

⁴ Stalker was shot on the Jägara River in Tallinn, Estonia.

⁵ A claim supported by Tarkovsky's fascination with and subsequent tutelage under famed psychic Ninel Kulagina whose extensively documented telekinetic abilities directly influenced the closing sequence of the film.