---
title: 'Stalker (1979)'
type: 'film'
director: 'Andrei Tarkovsky'
released: '1979-05-25'
runtime_minutes: 163
genres:
  - 'Drama'
  - 'Science Fiction'
countries:
  - 'Soviet Union'
themes:
  - 'The Wordless Stretch'
  - 'Water That Rises'
canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/movies/stalker-1979'
review_count: 1
fandom_rating: '9.50/10'
fandom_stars: '4.75/5'
imdb: 'https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/'
publisher: 'CinePixo'
---

# Stalker (1979)

1979 · 163 min · Drama, Science Fiction · Soviet Union

Original title: Сталкер

## Synopsis

Stalker is a 1979 Soviet science fantasy film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky with a screenplay written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, loosely based on their 1972 novel Roadside Picnic. The film tells the story of an expedition led by a figure known as the "Stalker", who guides his two clients—a melancholic writer and a professor —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 film combines elements of science fiction and fantasy with dramatic, philosophical, and psychological themes.

## Credits

- **Director:** [Andrei Tarkovsky](https://cinepixo.com/people/andrei-tarkovsky)
- **Screenplay:** [Andrei Tarkovsky](https://cinepixo.com/people/andrei-tarkovsky), [Boris Strugatsky](https://cinepixo.com/people/boris-strugatsky), [Arkady Strugatsky](https://cinepixo.com/people/arkady-strugatsky)
- **Original Music Composer:** [Eduard Artemyev](https://cinepixo.com/people/eduard-artemyev)
- **Director of Photography:** [Alexander Knyazhinsky](https://cinepixo.com/people/alexander-knyazhinsky), [Leonid Kalashnikov](https://cinepixo.com/people/leonid-kalashnikov), [Georgy Rerberg](https://cinepixo.com/people/georgy-rerberg)

## Cast

- [Alisa Freindlich](https://cinepixo.com/people/alisa-freindlich)
- [Vladimir Zamanskiy](https://cinepixo.com/people/vladimir-zamanskiy)
- [Anatoly Solonitsyn](https://cinepixo.com/people/anatoly-solonitsyn)
- [Alexander Kaidanovsky](https://cinepixo.com/people/alexander-kaidanovsky)
- [Nikolai Grinko](https://cinepixo.com/people/nikolai-grinko)

## Themes & motifs

- [The Wordless Stretch](https://cinepixo.com/topics/the-wordless-stretch) (motif) — Long dialogue-free passages of water, wind and a camera that will not hurry: the journey is measured in duration, and the duration is the meaning.
- [Water That Rises](https://cinepixo.com/topics/water-that-rises) (motif) — The Zone's rooms stand ankle-deep and never stop dripping; Tarkovsky lets water hold the frame for minutes at a time, and it is never weather.

Editorial, not imported: every axis and every sentence above was written here.

## Criticism on CinePixo

Fandom rating: **9.50/10** (4.75 of 5) from 1 review — the plain average of every published rating.

- **9.5/10** — [The Zone Refuses to Become Scenery](https://cinepixo.com/reviews/the-zone-refuses-to-become-scenery) by Vera Lindqvist, 2026-08-14
  > Stalker makes duration an ethical form: the Zone is never reduced to an obstacle course because Tarkovsky lets water, grass, rust and human doubt continue existing beyond the travelers' explanations.

Source: https://cinepixo.com/movies/stalker-1979
Film facts: Wikidata (Q200437); synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reviews, themes and notes are the work of this site's members.