Marked One

Lore & Background

The film tells the story of an expedition led by a figure known as the 'Stalker' (Alexander Kaidanovsky), who guides his two clients—a melancholic writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolai Grinko)—through a hazardous wasteland to a mysterious restricted site known simply as the 'Zone', where supposedly exists a room which grants a person's innermost desires. The Zone is a huge tract of open land where the normal laws of physics supposedly do not apply, containing supernatural hazards. At the heart of the Zone lies a 'Room' that is said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside. The government has fenced off the Zone, subjecting 'Stalkers', people who illegally guide others through the Zone, to harsh prison time if caught crossing the border.

Reader's Guide

The Stalker cautiously tests for anomalies as the trio painstakingly make their way toward the Room, though nothing unusual occurs. The Stalker warns that the Zone is a living thing that visitors must respect. The trio draw lots to determine that the Writer will go first through an especially long, dark, ominous passageway that the Stalker calls the 'meat grinder'. The Writer passes through without harm, shocking the Stalker, who reveals that the meat grinder kills anyone the Zone deems morally unworthy.

Did You Know?

• The film was shot over a year on film stock that was later discovered to be unusable and had to be almost entirely reshot with a new cinematographer, Alexander Knyazhinsky.
• Stalker was released by Goskino in May 1979.
• Upon release, the film garnered praise in the Soviet and Warsaw Pact press, but only mixed reviews in the West.
• In later years it was recognised as one of the greatest films of all time.
• In the decennial critics' and directors' polls published by the British Film Institute's magazine Sight and Sound in 2022, Stalker placed 43rd and 14th, respectively.