CRITERION COLLECTION: STALKER

Andrei Tarkovsky s final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide the Stalker leads a writer and a scientist into the heart of the Zone the restricted site of a long-ago disaster where the three men eventually zero in on the Room a place rumored to fulfill one s most deeply held desires. Adapting a science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Tarkovsky created an immersive world with a wealth of material detail and a sense of organic atmosphere. A religious allegory a reflection of contemporaneous political anxieties a meditation on film itself Stalker envelops the viewer by opening up a multitude of possible meanings.