Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky's final film in his native Soviet Union is almost certainly his finest, and is also the film that nearly broke him. Originally filmed using experimental Kodak film stock, there was a complication in the development process that rendered all of the footage unusable, forcing a complete reshoot on a shoestring budget. Not that you'd notice, because this is as close to a masterpiece as you're likely to get.
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In an unnamed totalitarian city lives the Stalker (Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy), a man eking out a meagre existence for his family by guiding people into a dangerous, off-limits wilderness known only as The Zone. His latest journey sees him escort a writer (Anatoliy Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolay Grinko) on a quest to find a room within The Zone that grants the visitor their one true desire.
Tarkovsky's direction is masterful, every shot is painstakingly crafted, and long, slow, sweeping camera moves give the film an eerie, dreamlike quality. The camera often lingers on characters faces, sometimes for minutes at a time. Their pained expressions conveying their bleak existence and fear of the unknown as they journey deeper into The Zone and themselves.
His use of colour is also astounding, from the frantic escape through the city, all filmed in monochrome, to the lush colours of The Zone itself, a former civilisation being reclaimed by nature. But it's not as simple as that, colours drain from the screen as their situation becomes more perilous and they realise their destination is as oppressive as the city they have left behind.
The Stalker himself is a tragic character, intrinsically linked to The Zone, it is the only place where he can find freedom and happiness. Yet the only time he gets to visit is when he is hired to accompany those looking to fill a void in their own miserable existence.
To say much more about the plot of Stalker would give too much away, as not a huge amount of 'action' happens in its almost 3 hour run time. Instead, it is a visual poem about the nature of the human condition, full of arresting imagery and secrets that would take countless viewings to fully understand.
If you like downbeat, metaphysical sci-fi in the vein of The Andromeda Strain or 2001: A Space Odyssey then I urge you to seek Stalker out. At time of press, Cinema City have one more showing (Wednesday 10th August, 1pm). Throw your nut and see where the journey takes you, you may even learn something about yourself along the way.
