Mirror1975
Paired by the Criterion Channel, both picked by RaMell Ross in the Criterion Closet, both on Hlynur Pálmason’s Top 10, both directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and both starring Anatoliy Solonitsyn
Stalker
Сталкер
Soviet Union / Russian / 1979 / 2h 42m
- Criterion Collection
- Spine №888
- Connections
- View Connections
Synopsis
Andrei Tarkovsky’s final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape, and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide—the Stalker—leads a writer and a professor into the heart of the Zone, the restricted site of a long-ago disaster, where the three men eventually zero in on the Room, a place rumored to fulfill one’s most deeply held desires. Adapting a science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Tarkovsky created an immersive world with a wealth of material detail and a sense of organic atmosphere. A religious allegory, a reflection of contemporaneous political anxieties, a meditation on film itself—STALKER envelops the viewer by opening up a multitude of possible meanings.
