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Landmark: Tarkovsky's Stalker

Matthew Sweet discusses Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker and its resonances with the accident that struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986.

In a special Landmark edition, Matthew Sweet discusses Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker with the director Sophie Fiennes, the journalist Konstantin Von Eggert, film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, the writer Geoff Dyer, and the academic and former tour guide in the Chernobyl Zone Dr Nicholas Rush Cooper from Durham University.

Stalker tells the story of three men - Writer, Professor, and Stalker. We are never quite sure who Stalker is, or what he represents, but it's his job to lead Writer and Professor on a journey into a mysterious region called The Zone. At the heart of The Zone is a room in which all wishes come true.

Based on the novel Roadside Picnic, by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Stalker is a kind of Science Fiction film with all the Science Fiction stripped out. Geoff Dyer notes that "Stalker has always invited allegorical readings, and since the film has something of the quality of prophecy, these readings are not confined to events that had occurred by the time the film was made." Is Stalker about the end of Communism? Does it prefigure the Chernobyl disaster? There are many possibilities, but the film remains mysterious.

Producer: Laura Thomas.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 19 Aug 2016 22:15

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest Sophie Fiennes
Interviewed Guest Konstantin von Eggert
Interviewed Guest Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Interviewed Guest Geoff Dyer
Interviewed Guest Nicholas Rush-Cooper
Producer Laura Thomas

Broadcasts

  • Tue 19 Apr 2016 22:00
  • Fri 19 Aug 2016 22:15

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