Stalker
Stalker
8.0100%92%
In a small, unnamed country there's an area called the Zone. It's an unusual area, and within its a place known as the Room, where it's believed wishes are granted. The government declared The Zone a no-go area and have sealed it off. This hasn't stopped people from entering the Zone. A writer, and a professor, want to reach the Zone. Their guide - a man known as a stalker, has a special relation with the Zone.
neuroparadox reviewed7d ago
Basically the prequel to Stand By Me when you really think about it... š¤
Joke aside, this was great. Visually stunning, the sound is haunting, meticulously paced, and it has a great ending that makes you go: "Wait, what did I miss?"
Stands on its own without having to dive into all the philosophical and sociopolitical yada yadas.
Side note: I watched Stalker because I had recently read the (loosely-based-on) source material, Roadside Picnic, which was an excellent sci-fi book with one of the most interesting premices I had come across in awhile.
The following is a excerpt from the foreword to Roadside Picnic by Ursula K. Le Guin:
Roadside Picnic is a āfirst contactā story with a difference. Aliens have visited the Earth and gone away again, leaving behind them several landing areas (now called the Zones) littered with their refuse. The picnickers have gone; the pack rats, wary but curious, approach the crumpled bits of cellophane, the glittering pull tabs from beer cans, and try to carry them home to their holes. Most of the mystifying debris is extremely dangerous. Some proves usefulāeternal batteries that power automobilesābut the scientists never know if they are using the devices for their proper purposes or employing (as it were) Geiger counters as hand axes and electronic components as nose rings. ī¢They cannot figure out the principles of the artifacts, the science behind them. An international Institute sponsors research. A black market flourishes; āstalkersā enter the forbidden Zones and, at risk of various kinds of ghastly disfigurement and death, steal bits of alien litter, bring the stuff out, and sell it, sometimes to the Institute itself.
If that doesn't make you want to read it then nothing will!