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Stalker

  • 1979
  • 12
  • 2h 42m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
145K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,520
27
Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy in Stalker (1979)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:00
2 Videos
99+ Photos
DramaSci-Fi

A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.

  • Director
    • Andrei Tarkovsky
  • Writers
    • Arkadiy Strugatskiy
    • Boris Strugatskiy
    • Andrei Tarkovsky
  • Stars
    • Alisa Freyndlikh
    • Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy
    • Anatoliy Solonitsyn
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.1/10
    145K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,520
    27
    • Director
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
    • Writers
      • Arkadiy Strugatskiy
      • Boris Strugatskiy
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
    • Stars
      • Alisa Freyndlikh
      • Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy
      • Anatoliy Solonitsyn
    • 541User reviews
    • 156Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 2 nominations

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:00
    Watch Official Trailer
    'The Platform' & Future Films From the IMDb Top 250
    Clip 4:04
    Watch 'The Platform' & Future Films From the IMDb Top 250

    Photos173

    On the film set near Tallinn, Estonia
    Nikolay Grinko and Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy and Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Alisa Freyndlikh in Stalker (1979)
    Nikolay Grinko, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, and Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy in Stalker (1979)
    Nikolay Grinko, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, and Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy in Stalker (1979)
    Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)
    Nikolay Grinko, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, and Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Alisa Freyndlikh
    Alisa Freyndlikh
    • Zhena Stalkera
    Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy
    Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy
    • Stalker
    Anatoliy Solonitsyn
    Anatoliy Solonitsyn
    • Pisatel
    Nikolay Grinko
    Nikolay Grinko
    • Professor
    Natalya Abramova
    • Marta, doch Stalkera
    • (as Natasha Abramova)
    Faime Jurno
    Faime Jurno
    • Sobesednitsa Pisatelya
    • (as F. Yurna)
    E. Kostin
    • Lyuger, khozyain kafe
    Raimo Rendi
    • Patrulnyy politseyskiy
    • (as R. Rendi)
    Sergey Yakovlev
    Sergey Yakovlev
    • Professor
    • (voice)
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
    • Writers
      • Arkadiy Strugatskiy
      • Boris Strugatskiy
      • Andrei Tarkovsky(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Andrei Tarkovsky spent about a year shooting all of the exterior scenes. The first part of this shoot was done over the spring and summer of 1977 with cinematographer Georgi Rerberg, using a new Kodak 5247 film stock provided by movie producer Sergio Gambarov. However, after developing these negatives, they came back with an unwatchable shade of dark green. According to the film's sound technician Vladimir Sharun, Tarkovsky always claimed that the movie was sabotaged by one of his enemies, a "well-known Soviet film director": the Kodak 5247 stock was reportedly stolen, and ended up in the hands of this director, while Tarkovsky unknowingly got a regular Kodak stock in return that was then developed incorrectly. Sharun, however, attributed the problem on "the usual Russian sloppiness", as the Kodak 5247 was newer to Soviet laboratories at the time, who didn't know how to properly process it. The disaster proved to be the final straw for Rerberg, who got the blame for the incident and walked off (or was released from) the film, so Tarkovsky had to shoot most of the film again with a new cinematographer, Aleksandr Knyazhinskiy. This contributed to the film's two-part narrative structure. Allegedly, the newly shot footage strayed even farther away from the source novel 'Roadside Picnic', and had a different look. Asked about this, director Tarkovsky said "no mother gives birth to the same child twice."
    • Goofs
      At about 23 minutes, when Stalker, writer and professor are driving in their car they have to hide for a motorcyclist. In the scene the motorcyclist comes from the right. From an opposite angle of view, he still comes from the right, where it should have been from the left.
    • Quotes

      Stalker: May everything come true. May they believe. And may they laugh at their passions. For what they call passion is not really the energy of the soul, but merely friction between the soul and the outside world. But, above all, may they believe in themselves and become as helpless as children. For softness is great and strength is worthless. When a man is born, he is soft and pliable. When he dies, he is strong and hard. When a tree grows, it is soft and pliable. But when it's dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death's companions. Flexibility and softness are the embodiment of life. That which has become hard shall not triumph.

    • Connections
      Featured in Uzak - Weit (2002)
    • Soundtracks
      La Marseillaise
      Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

    User reviews541

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    great masterpiece from greatest director
    i want to say somethings about the most poetic,philosophical and intuitive director, tarkovsky and his movies ,especially Stalker.

    first of all, we must all know that, tarkovsky is not for all. his poetic understanding of life and human and putting this understanding to his movies is unique in the world for my opinion. one of the most poetic and philosophical movies of him, Stalker is that kind of movie. it is like a poem written with objects. we must feel before we try to understand.

    opening sequence of film contains some kind of expressionist objects with related the moral and inner conditions of the people living in the town . the "dirty" black and white take gives the viewers ,the mood of people having nothing to live, nothing to believe and nothing to give others.and the aggressive green take in the "zone" gives another vision of the life. the camera moves very slow to make us to go into to film and feel the film. tarkovsky's usage of objects and colours is very different and that is why i think he was a cinema poet. on the other hand, in addition to this "poem written with objects", the film also has very deep philosophical content. what is life,what is human, what is goodness, what is selfishness, what is devotion, what are the bases of our civilizations etc. and people are made to think all these things, not mostly with dialogs but with objects and colours and complete vision.

    for example, the three objects shown while the camera goes into the water ,but actually to the heart of human being and we see one cringe, one gun and one religious icon. and these are the metaphors of the human civilizations for my opinion. and all the journey into to the "zone" and finally "room" , actually done into the human being. into our selfishness,into our subconsciousness, our badness,our goodness, our weak and strong parts. actually i can feel that , the things searched in this movie are our lost innocence . the stalker is the only people who believes something and needs to believe .and actually the journey itself is a fake. to go to the truth,faith,justice, goodness are being related with innocence in that movie. the microcosms shown poetically in the water is another metaphor shows human being's selfish behaviour. because human, destroys the things,destroys the innocence, destroys the world living around them.our today's civilization broke our strong cooperation with nature and changed this relationship to a nature disaster. the movie gives the message of the need of mercy to all the living and even non-living things in our nature. because human being's salvation is only related with that.

    and the need of hope, need of believe is human being's basic needs. and our modern world destroyed all the hopes and believes. the movie contains metaphors making us to feel and think about those needs.and the most critical thing is felt in the film that self-denial is the basic need in our world.and unfortunately this value is lost and needed to be re-gain.

    i can tell about all the metaphors in the movie but no need. because every person understand those things different like kafka's novels. and we just need to watch the movie with no prejudice but with open heart.

    i recommend this film to all the cinema-lovers. i recommend also not to try to understand this film. only leave yourself to this great poem and it will give you all you need.
    helpful•342
    112
    • envergulsen
    • Aug 26, 2004

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    FAQ12

    • Is the original Russian dialogue over-dubbed?
    • What is the drug that were injected in the opening scenes by the nightstands?
    • Is this movie based on a novel?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 1, 1981 (East Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • Soviet Union
    • Language
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • Stalker. La zona
    • Filming locations
      • Tallinn, Estonia
    • Production companies
      • Mosfilm
      • Vtoroe Tvorcheskoe Obedinenie
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • RUR 1,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $292,049
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $11,537
      • Sep 15, 2002
    • Gross worldwide
      • $395,274
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 42 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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