The “road movie” that I have chosen for this part of the exercise is Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker. None of Tarkovsky’s films are what might be called ‘easy’ but that for me is one of the attractions of his work. Although the initial critical reception of this film was poor it has subsequently grown in stature and I have even come across it being cited as the Tarkovsky film for people who do not like Tarkovsky. I am not sure I entirely agree with that – I would suggest The Sacrifice instead – but certainly regard it as one of his best, most immediately engaging, films.

One of the things I find most intriguing about it is how it predated the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. The Zone, a sealed off area affected by some cataclysmic disaster, prefigures the exclusion zone around Chernobyl in an uncanny way. There is obviously no real connection but the parallels are remarkable.

That Chernobyl connection brings back to mind Kazuma Obara’s book (2018) that I have previously written about for I&P. I suspect that this is something that I am going to come back to when thinking about a subject for Assignment 2 as many of the images deal with the train journey between Chernobyl and Slavutych.

So, to the film itself. Looking at it again I am struck by the parallels that can be drawn with, in particular, The Divine Comedy and Pilgrim’s Progress. as in both of those books, the journey undertaken by the protagonists, in this case Stalker, the guide through the Zone (a Virgil to Dante), the Writer and the Professor, is a metaphorical one in which the latter two seek to reach The Room which will grant their desires. The Room is a bit like Paradise/the Celestial City but more ambiguous in that it does not necessarily bring about consequences that are positive. Indeed, as happened to another stalker, Porcupine, who does not appear but whose story is retold, the Room can be fatal for those who seek it for negative reasons. The Room is therefore capable of providing redemption, or perdition. (In this regard the coincidence of Chernobyl is almost overwhelming; the exclusion zone around the nuclear plant has proved to be a sanctuary for wildlife, a redemption; the radio-active contamination on the other hand is still killing people and leading to birth defects and illnesses more than 30 years after the event – perdition.)

The fact of and the nature of the journey are central to the film. Again following the established conventions, it is important that the journey is hazardous, that there are trials and obstacles to be overcome: there are guards at the perimeter of the Zone to be avoided, there are perils and hazards, not visible to or discernible by anyone other than the Stalker, along the way; the route is tortuous and circuitous, discovered by Stalker throwing ahead metal bolts tied with strips of cloth to find the safe way.

The process of the journey also importantly provides a literary/cinematic opportunity for the characters to explore their motives for coming to the Zone – the Stalker, apparently altruistically, to help people fulfil their desires (and presumably more mundanely to make a living for himself and his family), the Writer to recover his inspiration, the Professor to win a Nobel prize for scientific investigation of the Room – and reassess their validity. The process of the journey, by bringing the protagonists into such close proximity, and conflict, by challenging their motives and beliefs, brings out the true nature of the Professor’s intention, which is to destroy the Room with a nuclear bomb. (There is a supreme irony here that the zone around Chernobyl, which in so many ways resembles the Zone, was caused by a nuclear accident.) The journey is itself the redemptive process and force. The Stalker comes to doubt the value and purpose of what he does in so far it is no longer clear to him that the Room can provide true happiness; the Writer, who first realises the negative potential of the Room depending on an individual’s desires and intentions (in passing, quite a Karmic notion) loses some of his own arrogance and self-centredness; the Professor gives up his plan and dismantles his bomb.

I could go on, but am mindful of the suggested word limit for this exercise. I will therefore simply add a recommendation of Dyer (2013) which is a scene by scene description of, and commentary on the film. I have written elsewhere that I like Dyer’s writing on photography despite a tendency towards hyperbole and over interpretation. In this case though my view is that he spot on. His book is itself a sort of road movie in its own terms. As one reviewer quoted on the back cover (Sukhdev Sandhu of the Guardian) puts it, Dyer has the ability “… to make pilgrims of his readers and lead them on a journey in search of truths about love and about the nature of happiness…”. How apt!

Dyer, G, (2013).  Zona.  Edinburgh:  Canongate

Obara, K, (2018).  Exposure / Everlasting.  Cordoba:  Editorial RM / RM Verlag

Tarkovsky, A, (1979). Stalker.

• Coursework
• Home
• Part 2