Film: Stalker
Release date: 22nd April 2002
Certificate: PG
Running time: 155 mins
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Alisa Frejndlikh, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Natasha Abramova
Genre: Adventure/Drama/Fantasy/Mystery/Sci-Fi
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD
Country: West Germany/Soviet Union
A forgotten classic that has inspired everything from a gaming franchise to a smash hit TV show, Stalker is a haunting depiction of lost identity and the fragility of existence.
In a nameless Russian industrial town, the government have cordoned off a strange area of land known as ’the zone’. Feared by the general public for its strange, supernatural powers, the zone is said to contain a room in which ones deepest wish is granted. Two men, a sceptical scientist and a cynical writer, venture into the zone in search of the wish granting room. The men are escorted by a stalker, one of a collection of people who claim to understand the zone’s power.
As the three companions enter the zone, their fears and scepticisms escalate, as the stalker’s instructions become more obscure. During their journey, they encounter strange phenomena, listen to unsettling stories of people that have gone into the zone before them and bicker about the zone’s intentions…
Stalker is a haunting masterpiece that belies definition. Is it an apocalyptic drama? A fairytale? A horror? It is all of these things and so much more. As the three men traverse the psychological perils of the zone, they question life in the modern world, discussing the relevance of science, art and fantasy, whilst questioning their own existence and finding beauty and terror in their surroundings.
The zone itself is the film’s central character, a place of hope and almost overwhelming despair. Evidence of grand battles that are never explained, natural phenomena exhibiting strange behaviour, and long decayed corpses littering the countryside. The zone is one of the most convincing apocalyptic environments in cinema, and it is achieved without a single computer.
The film’s minimalist approach, intricate sound design and cramped mise-en-scène work together to create massive amounts of dread and foreboding. Tarkovsky shoots in long, laborious takes that drain the strength of the viewer, much like the mysterious intentions of the zone slowly suck the life from the three companions. The men themselves are merely pawns in the grand and mysterious machinations of the zone, or are they slaves to their own fear and doubt?
The human elements of the film, while impressive, are merely ciphers for the film’s real thematic objectives. The writer is a bitter cynic, unhappy with his career and doubtful that the wish granter will offer any absolution, believing his writing would become hollow and pointless when an accolade is guaranteed. The professor is intrigued by the scientific possibilities of the zone, yet seeks to destroy the wish granter for his own selfish emotional release. The stalker is a strange narrative abstraction, not quite providing enough exposition about the zone, yet explaining enough to instil unrest. The viewer’s opinion of the stalker reflects that of his reluctant followers, he is a prisoner of his own calling and come the film’s open-ended conclusion, we find that the fate of the stalker and his family has been pre-determined from the start.
It’s surprising how far the influence of Stalker has spread. Cult videogames Shadow Of Chernobyl (2007) and Call Of Pripyat (2010) have taken the film’s main plot and shape a convincing narrative from the events within the zone. Meanwhile, TV series Lost, its mysterious island and the idea that the survivors of flight 180 are candidates 'chosen' to protect it, is lifted wholesale from Stalker.
Much like Lost, Stalker offers no easy answers. The mystery of the zone and its wish granting abilities is never solved, nor is the fate of the Stalkers - strange benefactors of the zone's secrets. The film offers a bold conclusion that may frustrate some, but sits well with the unpredictable nature of the film as a whole. Narrative flow falls by the wayside in Tarkovsky’s world and this is particularly evident with Stalker.
The nihilistic pacing will alienate some, but this a film of raw emotion, not narrative tropes. The maverick Russian director is a seminal filmmaker, and this may be his finest work. KT
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