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| 'Stalker' is a 1979 Soviet science fiction film, filmed in uncertain present day dystopian setting. |
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| The writers of the film were Arkady and Boris Strugatsy from their 1972 book 'Roadside Picnic'. |
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| It is a 'quest' film, 'The Zone' is a place in which there exists a room which grants a person their innermost desires. Guides to the place are called Stalkers. The Professor is one such guide who takes a depressed writer and a scientist through the wasteland that is the outer layer of The Zone. |
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| The film combined elements of philosophy, theology, science and fantasy in a way that took the dogma out of each element. |
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| The idea of getting past guards to investigate a derelict industrial landscape to find the room that grants people their wishes grants a poetic ennobling of that post-industrial world. |
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| The men do eventually find the room, and find their selfishness or altruism reflected back at them within it as well as telling the story of a previous stalker/guide. To enter the room requires an act of sacrifice. The film's film's ultimate message is one of struggle and the need for selflessness to survive. through struggle |
