Film Review: Stalker (P.G.) (U.S.S.R. 1979) (Russian with English Subtitles) (Director: Andrei Tarkovsky), Wednesday 08.08.2012 20:10 The Filmhouse Screen Two, Edinburgh

The is the Russian Classic, about 'The Zone' where your greatest desires can come true, which I had heard several critics mention and was intrigued to see. The film is slow in pace and long (2H 41Min), though on first viewing did not feel to drag. The lack of drag may be due to the mysterious nature of how the story is told.

The film uses environments of industrial grime and decline and shoots them in way that caused me as a viewer to view them anew and see beauty in these scenes which previously may not have been apparent. The central idea of there being a place where your greatest desires can be caused to come to be, and how this is approached within the film, for me speaks of the idea, that what we take from our environment in terms of remembered experience and whether we view these in a negative or positive light, is dependent upon the framing we approach our experiencing with. In simple terms do we allow ourselves to see the beauty or not; glass half empty/half full. This does not inform the whole story, there is more to it, though this is the nub.

The film was not what I was expecting, though I found it very enjoyable, yet unsure why. It is a film that I feel is very difficult to properly explain why I feel it is good. It is probably best to say, that if you are prepared to spend close to 3 Hours watching a film in Russian, then give it a go.

Rating: 09/10.