Stalker: A Journey Through the Bar.
The scene on which our project is based, is the bar scene towards the end of the film; the point in which the Professor, the Writer and the Stalker have returned from the Zone after having abandoned the idea of entering The Room, and everything they hoped to gain from within.
The Bar scene, to us, represents that transition between the pursuit of desire in the warped reality of the Zone, and the acceptance of their individual circumstances. The bar is the point in which they surrender their dreams and return back to ‘normal’ life. The bar is both a place of familiarity and safety, and entrapment, as the Stalker references throughout the film feeling as though he is a prisoner in real life. The Stalker prefers the Zone and the endless chase of desire, to his mundane reality; to him the Zone represents the hope of a better life. The Bar begins the start and the end of the pursuit, so becoming a place of both hope and disappointment.
One major element of the scene is the presence of a black dog that has followed the men back from The Zone. The dog becomes a metaphor for experience and the memories that the Stalker will always carry. The stalker is hesitant to leave the Bar and to leave behind the memories of The Zone, and the dog returns with the Stalker back to the family home, against the wife’s adamant wishes. To us the dog living in the family home represents the stalker being unable to shake off the memories of all he has experienced; always torn between longing to return to The Zone, and wanting to remain in the safety of normality.
With our reinterpretation of the scene, portrayed through the eyes of The Stalker, we are aiming to depict that sense of claustrophobia he feels in real life, and the residual memory of what he has left behind. The scene transitions through revealing the new space, the Stalker’s confusion and disorientation, and hesitation for what lies ahead. The Ante-Room reveals itself but remains a mirage, out of reach from the Stalker, as he realises he is trapped inside his current reality. Through the warped dimensions of the space and the objects inside, we have distorted reality; a reality which, for the Stalker, will never be the same again. The stalker remains trapped within his memory and his hesitant longing to return to The Zone. This sense of perpetual memory; the cycle of desire and disappointment, is captured through a cyclic film; one where the bar transforms realities, becoming both the reality disconnected from the Zone, and the vehicle for his return to the Zone. In our interpretation of the scene, as within his memories, the Stalker remains trapped, in a constant cycle between the promises of The Zone, and the dissatisfaction of his reality.
