“People don’t like to talk about their innermost thoughts” – Stalker
“The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.” (Proverbs 20:5).
It is difficult to walk away from Stalker without wondering if you’ve been changed forever. That instinct, in my case, has proven correct, as the film haunts me often and beckons me to rewatch it frequently.
Director Andrei Tarkovsky was a serious man who lived and breathed the enchanted realm beyond the senses. His patient filmmaking attests to a deep formation in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, totally attuned to unseen spiritual truths despite life in the godless Soviet Union. We are fortunate he made many splendid films before his untimely death at 54.
Stalker is set years after a mysterious asteroid strikes earth to create hazardous conditions that seemingly bend reality. Soldiers sent to investigate the impact area – known as the ‘Zone’ – never return, causing authorities to erect large barriers prohibiting any from passing. Rumours give rise to a purported ‘Room’ in the Zone, where men's deepest desires are granted to all who enter.
The only ones capable of traversing the Zone are the preternaturally gifted ‘Stalkers’, each with a peculiar affinity for the unorthodox rules and distortions governing its landscape. Early on, we meet a Stalker and two other characters known only as Writer and Professor. Both seek the spoils of the Room but for different reasons. Writer is a cynical man on a flight of fancy, hoping to perhaps reawaken his inspiration, but also in it as a cure for boredom. Professor is more guarded, wishing to satisfy his scientific curiosity.
The journey through the Zone is not one of twists and turns. It follows the immersive hallmarks of Tarkovsky’s poetic craft. Many shots linger on the faces of the three men, revealing their vulnerability and sorrow. Like the Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman, extreme close-ups let the actors display their full range of poignant, unspoken feelings. Considerable time is given to Tarkovsky’s slow, probing lens to capture these moments.
The film focuses on the contradictions and perplexities of the human condition. Each of us is deep waters. We are plagued with how it is we are supposed to truly know others when we know so little of ourselves. We gradually realise our inability to escape the wrong we are capable of, and from the desires that lead us there (Romans 7:15).
The concept of desire is expounded on at length in the Bible. We learn that God intended us to be creatures of desire. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul exhorts his readers to reorient their desires as new people in Christ, directing them towards noble, honourable, and beautiful things. Christians are to look ahead to an eternal kingdom where desire locates itself in the worship of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In Stalker, Tarkovsky explores how difficult this is to achieve for people in a fallen world. The confusions of sin have entered humanity and become our constant companion. Not only are passions pulling us in many directions, but we also must reckon with the crooked motivations in our finest deeds.
As the prophet Jeremiah said, ‘the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked – who can know it’? (Jeremiah 17:9). Indeed – who can know it?
The Room promises a gift but delivers much more than is bargained for. It has an alien power to present the heart's truth, plumbing the depths of its blackness and exposing it, warts and all. It knows, and it warns its seekers that they may not wish to really know themselves.
It is the refreshing honesty of these themes that makes them so attractive. Some works of art draw us out of ourselves towards greater subjects, but other art, like Stalker, turns the magnifying glass on us. It wants us to admit to ourselves a capacity we have to want things ‘in accordance with the flesh’ (Romans 8:5), and that our desire to do these things can truly unnerve us.
Without the hope of being rescued, these questions tend to be avoided by any means necessary. Stalker invites us to re-engage and reflect on them in our distracted age. The perpetual novelty of technology has allowed many people to avoid being alone with their thoughts, or to face discomforting truths. We now prefer the quack healer’s soothing potion over the harsh scalpel of a master surgeon.
Like many films before and after it, Stalker ran the risk of telling a simple cautionary tale of ‘be careful what you wish for’. Had this been the case, its contemplative possibilities would have simply fallen short. No pre-packaged answers are available here, only a chance to confront bigger questions in a meditative atmosphere.
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Christians rejoice in the firm hope of God’s promises: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26). Misplaced desire will continue to beset each and every one of us, but we must remember that the Gospel stands for good news, transforming those who cling to it despite themselves.
In walking by the Spirit, we experience God’s gift of abundant life and inexpressible joy. We can hope that in encountering art of this calibre, many of those who are yet to know Jesus find an honest depiction of ‘the line separating good and evil that passes through every human heart”.
As a viewer and a writer, I am grateful for the fine work of those who painstakingly restored Stalker on Blu-ray. The reels have languished in Soviet archives for years, but have survived long enough to get the treatment they deserve. The Blu-ray is available through the Criterion Collection, or by subscription to their digital streaming channel.
