Calling all Tarkovsky fans! (And anyone interested in examining their innermost desires and exploring what it is to be human. Also sci-fi fans.) TIFF is currently holding a series on the films of Andrei Tarkovsky called The Poetry of Apocalypse: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, the schedule for which you can view here! And seeing as I’ve only seen the one film by Tarkovsky, I’m going to talk a bit about Stalker and touch lightly upon the novel that served as its inspiration: Roadside Picnic by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.

You can check out the screenings for Stalker at the TIFF here, and they actually have a special event on Tuesday November 14th (tomorrow) where guest speaker Robert Bird talks about Tarkovksy and his influence on Soviet films.

Now, onto the film. This felt more like a foray into the heart, where each member of the group must confront their own desires and the reality of what, or who, they are before they are able to reach their destination: the area of the Zone where, people say, your deepest desire will come true. But do we really know what it is that lurks within the depths of our hearts?

Rather than of an/the apocalypse, I think Stalker is more post-apocalyptic, in that the encounter with whatever alien force has come and gone has already happened: the world has already met its apocalypse of sorts. There is now no way to think about the encounter (which details no one is quite sure of) and the world it left in its wake apart from before & after. What the visitors have left behind are six Zones, which we don’t learn much about before we follow the stalker and his group into one: we learn about it as the group makes its way across its terrain, discovering how the principles upon which it operates differs from that to which we are accustomed, though not – or so it seems to me – by much, and by rather indecipherable ones at that. The stalker who leads the three men into the Zone exhorts them all to follow him and not to wander off, because the Zone is a very dangerous place, but it is not (immediately) clear what exactly it is that makes it dangerous – assuming, of course, that the danger is a physical danger, which sounds to be how the stalker means it. We never find out what the rules are, exactly, though it sounds as though they are passed down from stalker to stalker (generation to generation), and it actually looks like a nice, quiet spot. That is, if you ignore the increasing sense of unease the Zone evokes, brought on by the knowledge that something alien has both dropped in and left, leaving behind its refuse and rubble and a landscape irrevocably changed. A roadside picnic, if you will.

We never really find out the history of that visit or the specifics of its effects on the cordoned off area that constitutes the Zone (beyond knowing that it does affect those who go into it and those who live around the area), but I think the film is very thought-provoking as an encounter story, in that what each member of the group who go into the Zone encounter something that is simultaneously incredibly intimate, yet also alien, to themselves (the irony being, I suppose, that what they are encountering is in a way their very selves). Then there’s the twist in encounter story structure where the visitors don’t even spare humanity a glance: how do we grapple with this in light of our views about our own importance?

It’s a slow film, and the ending was beyond confusing for me – I’m still trying to figure it out, a year after I watched it – but ultimately I think it’s definitely worth the time, and perhaps the guest speaker will help shed some light upon interpretation. But while we’re waiting for tomorrow to come (one day more!), there’s also Roadside Picnic from which we can try to glean some more information or explanation.

For Roadside Picnic, let me start off by saying this: Stalker may have been inspired by Roadside Picnic, but it’s a whole ‘nother beast. And because I haven’t actually finished reading the novel, I’m going to leave my impressions for another day; in light of spoilers I’ve read about the ending, I’d like to wait until I’m completely finished before I say anything about it as a whole. For now, though, I can tell you it takes a completely different approach to the encounter story than Stalker does, and you get a very different feel for the characters (and the Zone) than in the novel. I suppose they both came out of the Zone, but were altered in vastly different ways.