Part of Mark Kermode's 'Europe in 25 films: the critics’ choice' - featured in The Observer. ‘Stalker’, Andrei Tarkovsky's second foray into science fiction after 'Solaris' is a surreal and disturbing vision of the future. Adapted from Arkady and Boris Sturgatsky's novel 'Roadside Picnic', it has been described as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. Deep within the Zone, a bleak and devastated forbidden landscape, lies a mysterious room with the power to grant the deepest wishes of those strong enough to make the hazardous journey there. Desperate to reach it, a scientist and a writer approach the Stalker, one of the few able to navigate the Zone's menacing terrain, and begin a dangerous trek into the unknown.