Film Screening: Stalker by Andrey Tarkovskiy

Stalker is a 1979 Soviet science fiction art film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic (1972). The film combines elements of science fiction with dramatic philosophical and psychological themes. Stalker has been called one of the best drama films of the latter half of the 20th century.

The film tells the story of an expedition led by a figure known as the “Stalker” (Alexander Kaidanovsky), who takes his two clients (a melancholic writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) seeking inspiration, and a professor (Nikolai Grinko) seeking scientific discovery to a mysterious restricted site known simply as the “Zone” , where there supposedly exists a room which grants a person’s innermost desires. The trio travel through unnerving areas filled with the debris of modern society while engaging in many arguments.

The film is introduced by Ben Hopkins – a screenwriter, film-maker and novelist. Works predominantly as a screenwriter, writing films in all genres for other directors.

In Russian with English subtitles.