Retrospective Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker

Retrospective Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker

This screening is the UK premiere of the new digital restoration of Stalker, made in collaboration with the film’s camera operator from the original negative

Deep within the Zone, a bleak and devastated forbidden landscape, lies a mysterious room with the power to grant the deepest wishes of those strong enough to make the hazardous journey there. Desperate to reach it, a scientist and a writer approach the Stalker, one of the few able to navigate the Zone’s menacing terrain, and begin a dangerous trek into the unknown.

Adapted from Arkady and Boris Sturgatsky’s novel Roadside Picnic, Andrei Tarkovsky’s second foray into science fiction after Solaris is a surreal and disturbing vision of the future. Hauntingly exploring Man’s dreams and desires as well as the consequences of realising them, Stalker has been described as one of the greatest scifi films of all time.

Stalker, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union 1979, 163 mins, English subtitles