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Stalker

  • 1979
  • Not Rated
  • 2h 42m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
138K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,723
550
Anatoliy Solonitsyn 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, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    8.1/10
    138K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,723
    550
    • Director
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
    • Writers
      • Arkadiy Strugatskiy
      • Boris Strugatskiy
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
    • Stars
      • Alisa Freyndlikh
      • Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy
      • Anatoliy Solonitsyn
    • 520User reviews
    • 152Critic reviews
    • 83Metascore
  • See more 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

    Photos170

    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

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Andrei Tarkovsky spent about a year shooting all of the exterior scenes with cinematographer Georgi Rerberg using Kodak 5247 film. This film stock was newer to Soviet laboratories of the time, and some of the original negatives were destroyed by a processing error at the laboratory. Part of the film had to be shot again with a new cinematographer, Aleksandr Knyazhinskiy. This contributed to the film's two-part narrative structure. Allegedly, the newly shot footage strayed 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 Distant (2002)
    • Soundtracks
      La Marseillaise
      Written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

    User reviews520

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Imagine listening to a cheap philosophical audio-book while walking through an exhibition of art photography with depressive motifs ...
    This cult achievement of Andrei Tarkovsky is generally accepted as one of the masterpieces of Russian cinematography. When I had the opportunity to see it on the big screen, I couldn't miss it. Fortunately, the ticket was extremely cheap.

    "Stalker" is based on the SF novel "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatskiy brothers, who adapted it into the script themselves. Although its genre classification is the same as that of the novel, "Stalker" is a philosophical and psychological drama, whose SF premise is only mentioned, and I believe that it is no more than a mere illusion in the minds of the protagonists, so the SF determinant leads to completely wrong expectations.

    The film opens with a very slow but mesmerizingly atmospheric and superbly shot scene, each frame of which is an art photograph. Already in those first moments, I saw myself rating it a ten, but from there on the film only goes downhill.

    To be clear, the rest of the film doesn't visually lag behind that first scene, but too long shots that show totally uninteresting people who do more or less nothing, no matter how beautifully shot, are not enough to hold my attention for almost three hours. If I wanted to enjoy top photography, I would go to an exhibition and not to the cinema. Of those three hours, perhaps a third is filled with plot, which again is largely reduced to monologues, while nothing really happens. Essentially, this looks more like a monodrama than a movie.

    In the center of events is an area called the Zone, in which there is a room that, for those who get it alive, fulfills the greatest wish. The basic message of the film is: "Be careful what you wish for it might come true", because the Room does not fulfill the wish that we consciously ask for, but the essential one, hidden in the depths of man.

    This is an interesting premise from which you will not see anything in the film. We don't know for sure whether the Zone is special in any way at all, nor do any of the protagonists use the Room. The premise is only there to give us the background to study the personalities of the people who headed to the zone and their guide, Stalker.

    The plot itself can be told in a few sentences, while the whole story is reduced to a philosophical monologue by the author through the mouths of three protagonists. There are no original philosophical ideas or interesting views on life. Just a bunch of true, but long-worn philosophical and psychological phrases, pretentiously packaged so that they seem more profound and significant than they really are.

    General impression - beautifully filmed but pretentious and hard to watch, without the essential strength to justify the effort. Just because of the technical qualities and the atmosphere, I can't go below

    7/10

    "The photography, in this case, is like the wrapping of an empty present box." - trans_mauro.
    helpful•48
    20
    • Bored_Dragon
    • Jul 31, 2021

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    FAQ12

    • Is the original Russian dialogue over-dubbed?
    • Is this movie based on a novel?
    • Where does the title "Stalkers" come from?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 17, 1980 (Netherlands)
    • 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

    Edit
    • Budget
      • RUR 1,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $292,049
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $11,537
      • Sep 15, 2002
    • Gross worldwide
      • $385,067
    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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