Stalker [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs]

Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky teamed with writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky for this misty allegory. The film is set in an industrial wasteland in the heart of Russia. Out of the wilderness materializes "The Zone," where all laws of life have no meaning and are thus ignored. The spectral Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) guides two deep thinkers (Nikolai Grinko and Anatoli Solonitsin) through this unfettered limbo. Released worldwide three years after its 1979 Russian debut, The Stalker can never be accused of being rubber-stamp entertainment; excruciatingly slow at times, the film is in the long run as richly rewarding and intellectually stimulating as director Tarkovsky's other works.