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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
stalker
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
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
error
5
.
1 And within The Zone is The Room - the full unveiling of damning desire. Ref# error 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.
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