Film Review: Stalker

(Spoilers Ahead)

Stalker is a 1979 Soviet Union film directed by the great Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the 1972 novel “Roadside Picnic” and the film was written in collaboration with the authors of the novel. Coming off of his 1975 film “Mirror” which was essentially Tarkovsky’s own biography, he decided that he wanted to adapt Roadside Picnic onto the screen. The production of the film is infamous for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the film had to be shot twice because after shooting all of the outdoor scenes they realized the film had not been properly developed. Also during this time Tarkovsky and his cinematographer at the time, Georgy Rerberg, were at odds. Tarkovsky proceeded to get a new cinematographer and totally reshoot the film. Apparently, the final outcome of the film was incredibly different from the first time they shot it. The production of the film is most famous for giving Tarkovsky, his wife, multiple actors, and multiple crew members cancer from the toxic and hazardous locations they were filming in. The film is shot in a city in north Estonia at two abandoned hydropower plants. Much of the beautiful landscapes and cinematography, in reality, were clouded in poisonous air.

The spine of the plot of Stalker is really quite simple for a two-and-a-half-hour movie. The film centers on an unnamed character simply known as “Stalker” played by the great Russian actor Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy. His occupation for the last several years has guided citizens through a heavily guarded area known as “ the Zone”. The goal of going through the Zone is to make it to a certain place known as “the Room” where if you cross into it it will give a person their deepest innermost desires. The Stalker knows his way through the Zone because of a former mentor from whom we never learn much. In the film, the Stalker is getting ready to lead two citizens, a writer, and a scientist respectively, through the zone to the Room so they can obtain their innermost desires. The writer, played by legendary Tarkovsky collaborator Anatoliy Solonitsyn, is seeking inspiration and creativity to make his writing better. The scientist, played by Nikolay Grinko, is seeking scientific discovery from the Zone. Throughout the film, the three men are pitted against each other through personal, religious, philosophical, and theological differences. The Stalker, again and again, becomes annoyed with the other two men because he feels as though their intentions aren’t pure. Once they make it to the precipice of “the Room” the men do not enter each for their own reasons. The men then travel back to the outside world and the Stalker has lost his faith in the world stating, “They don’t believe in anything. Their capacity for faith has atrophied- through lack of use.”

The experience of this movie is truly unlike any other. The average shot length of this movie is over one minute which is absurd by today's modern movie culture standards. Tarkovsky does this because he wants to fully envelope the viewer into the world and put them into the different protagonists perspectives. The philosophical and theological tones and overtures that are found in this movie are incredibly sincere and thought-provoking.

The one main key element that I want to focus on is the religious symbolism throughout the movie. From the very beginning of the movie, we see a half-eaten apple, medicine, and water on the Stalker’s bedside table. These things represent our earthly desires through the apple (Adam and Eve) and medicine, and our need for baptism (water), which is an overarching symbol throughout the film. The Stalker can be seen as an almost Christlike figure much like Jesus as he is trying to lead more and more troubled people to the Zone which he calls “his home”. The Zone and more specifically the Room can be seen as a symbol of Heaven because it can grant your deepest desires and is a spiritual place for the people that travel there. I think the two most important symbols in the film are the Dog, as well as Monkey, the Stalker’s disabled daughter. I believe the Dog represents God for many reasons. The Dog originates from the Zone and the first time we see him is when he is getting close to the Stalker in an almost dream-like sequence. Also, the Dog follows us out of the Zone implying that God follows us whenever we have faith and trust in Him. Monkey is a multilayered character that represents youth, optimism, trust, and power. It is important to note that the only time in the film is in full color outside of the Zone is when we are with Monkey. At the very end of the film, we see that Monkey has the power of telekinesis. This originates from the Zone because the Stalker has been going to the Zone long before Monkey was born. It is interesting to see the dynamic between the Stalker and Monkey because it seems that the Stalker has always been sad that Monkey is disabled and he sees her as “different”. I think that we the audience have to question whether Monkey brings the Stalker and his wife closer to God or further from God. “And if there were no sorrow in our lives, it wouldn’t be better.”