Stalker (1979)

Zóna je velice složitý systém… pastí, řekněme – a všechny jsou smrtelné. Nevím, co se zde děje v nepřítomnosti člověka, ale jakmile sem někdo vkročí, všechno se dá do pohybu. Staré pasti mizí a nové vznikají. Bezpečná místa jsou najednou neprůchodná. Cesta je chvíli lehká a snadná, a hned se zase beznadějně zhorší. To je Zóna. Možná to vypadá, jako by byla rozmarná. Ale v každém okamžiku je taková, jakou jsme ji udělali my – naším vnitřním stavem. Neskrývám, že se stávalo, že se lidé museli v půlce cesty vrátit zpět. Někteří dokonce zahynuli na samém prahu komnaty. Ale všechno, co se tady děje, nezáleží na Zóně – ale na nás!

https://youtu.be/Q3hBLv-HLEc?t=3722

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Tarkovsky was notoriously averse to discussing his films and any meaning which they might have. But in his memoir Sculpting in Time he did reveal something of what inspired him to make his extraordinary films:

In Stalker I made some sort of complete statement: namely that human love alone is – miraculously – proof against the blunt assertion that there is no hope for the world. This is our common, and incontrovertibly positive possession. Although we no longer quite know how to love…

In this film I wanted to mark out that essentially human thing that cannot be dissolved or broken down, that forms like a crystal in the soul of each of us and constitutes its great worth. And even though outwardly their journey seems to end in fiasco, in fact each of the protagonists acquires something of inestimable value: faith. He becomes aware in himself of what is most important of all; and that most important thing is alive in every person.

(zdroj)