Top 250

Stalker (1979)
Number 188 on IMDb's Top 250

Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers. Outside the Zone a man rises in the dead of night: he's a stalker, one of a handful who have the mental gifts (and who risk imprisonment) to lead people into the Zone to the Room, a place where one's secret hopes come true. That night, hilarity ensues as he takes two people into the Zone: a popular writer who is burned out, cynical, and questioning his genius; and a quiet scientist more concerned about his knapsack than the journey. In the deserted Zone, the approach to the Room must be indirect. As they draw near, the rules seem to change and the stalker faces a crisis.

Trivia: The Zone of the film was inspired by a nuclear accident that took place near Chelyabinsk in 1957. Several hundred square kilometers were polluted by fallout and abandoned; of course there was no official mention of this forbidden zone at the time. The original negatives were destroyed by a processing error at the laboratory, and the film had to be shot again from scratch with a new director of photography. It is said that the rushes of the first version of the film were kept by editor Lyudmila Feiginova in her home for years. They were destroyed by fire that also claimed her life. The insignia on the police officers' helmet features two letters: AT, the initials of the director, Andrei Tarkovsky. Towards the end of the movie, the Stalker's wife smokes cigarettes from a carton that bears the same AT (Andrei Tarkovsky) insignia as the policeman's helmet.

Not only is the my first introduction to Russian Cinema, but it is Science Fiction, which at the best of times is somewhat difficult to understand. So here is what I understand the premise to be. A stalker is a man who leads others into the zone and shows them a safe passage to the magically Room that can grant them wishes. But there is a catch, it seems the Room doesn't want to make it too easy so you can't walk straight to it, and even worse, you can't go the same way every time and you can not go back the way you came in because things change constantly so you have to be on your toes and be on alert at all times, which is why there are so few stalkers. On the other hand, the stalkers have to be dedicated and not use the Room themselves. All in all it was a good movie. The tension is maintained all the way through even though they are basically walking through a quaint countryside with a few ruined buildings. There are definitely two parts to this movie, outside the Zone and inside the Zone, both with their own look and style with a touch of Wizard of Oz thrown in. Outside the Zone is a dark bleak world shown in high contrast browns and blacks (akin to the look of Sin City) while inside is soft and colorful and full of life. I am pretty sure the director was going for the feel that the inside was more natural and comforting then the outside. Russian Sci-Fi. Wow.