By Maria Komodore
There aren’t many things that haven’t been written about Andrey Tarkovsky’s Stalker. Of course the film’s mysterious subject and Tarkovsky’s even more mysterious direction do open the film up to all kinds of discussions. The story, if one can say that there is such a thing, revolves around an enigmatic Zone whose creation conditions never become quite clear. The suggestion is that it was the product of a meteorite fall—but that doesn’t really matter anyhow. Within the obscure Zone there is the equally abstruse Room which is supposed to be capable of granting men’s innermost wishes. Writer and Scientist are the film’s two protagonists, who want to access the Zone and get to the Room, although doing so is prohibited to everyone. And this is where the Stalker, the film’s third main character, comes in. Writer and Scientist use him to reach the Room. The Stalker has managed to find his way in the forbidden area and navigate it safely.