Where to watch Stalker (1979)

Trivia & production notes

• Tarkovsky initially suggested the Roadside Picnic novel to director Mikhail Kalatozov, but only pursued adapting it himself after Kalatozov abandoned the project due to rights issues.
• Tarkovsky structured the film to follow classical Aristotelian unity, confining the action to a single location within a 24-hour period.
• The film shares almost nothing with its source novel except the words 'Stalker' and 'Zone', according to Tarkovsky in a 1979 interview.
• After a year of outdoor shooting, all the film was ruined during development because Soviet labs were unfamiliar with the new Kodak 5247 stock being used.
• Tarkovsky fired cinematographer Georgy Rerberg after the ruined footage was discovered, though witnesses say the final film is almost identical to Rerberg's original version.
• To keep the project alive after the stock disaster, Tarkovsky proposed making the film in two parts, securing additional deadlines and funds from Soviet film boards.
• Tarkovsky shot Stalker three times total, consuming over 5,000 meters of film, ultimately reshooting almost everything with new cinematographer Alexander Knyazhinsky.
• The Zone sequences were filmed in just a few days at two abandoned hydropower plants near Tallinn, Estonia, along the Jägala river.
• Multiple crew members, including director Tarkovsky, actor Anatoly Solonitsyn, and Tarkovsky's wife Larisa, died from cancer attributed to exposure to toxic pollution at the filming locations near chemical plants.
• Eduard Artemyev composed the film score, continuing a working relationship with Tarkovsky from his previous films.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Stalker (1979 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.