The Film “Stalker” by A.A. Tarkovsky as a Manifestation of F.M. Dostoevsky’s World Outlook

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of transformation of “A Picnic on
Roadside”, a science fiction novel written by the Strugatsky brothers, into Andrey
Tarkovsky’s movie “Stalker”. Despite the fact that Tarkovsky himself said the sci-fi
section of the film was no more that a strategic trigger that helped to reveal the
key ethical conflicts, up to now, there has been no attempt to compare the film
“Stalker” with the original novel in order to understand the director’s intention.
This article aims to look into what made him choose the novel and how he turned
it into a movie.
Tarkovsky found the shelter for souls and hope in “A Picnic on Roadside”.
In other words, he found the psychological and existential clues that could be
combined with material from Dostoyevsky’s works.
The stalker described by the Strugatsky brothers was a kind of predator
selling mysterious things in the forbidden zone, whereas the stalker described
by Tarkovsky functioned a priest who guides the lost or miserable souls to
the sanctuary to realize their desire and hope.
Furthermore, the stalker’s attitude toward life in the movie incorporates
Dostoyevsky himself who experienced Siberia and is reminiscent of both
Raskolnikov from the novel “Crime and Punishment” and Myshkin, the main
character of the novel “The Idiot”. Just like Sonia of “Crime and Punishment” and
Myshkin of “The Idiot” discovered God through the image of the “holy fool”, so
the stalker, his wife and daughter discover the fullness of God through their flaws.
This “kenosis” attribute is the basis of the fullness of Dostoevsky’s work,
which inherits the spirit of the Russian Orthodoxy. In the final script, Tarkovsky
transforms the “forbidden zone” into a sacred space. The path of the characters
heading toward the “zone” is “the exploration of their human mind”. The “Stalker”
is a philosophical meditation.