Page - 43 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/01

fiction, while a setting detached from the reality of Christian theology transforms the perception of the Stalker as a Christological figure. With that said, this article now turns to one of the film’s most important soteriological and eschatological motifs. The Motif of “Journey” Of Tarkovsky’s seven films, Stalker is the only one with a linear narrative, structured around a physical journey. In this regard, the narrative is (literally) straightforward: at the beginning the characters express their desire to journey through the Zone to the Room; the middle of the film depicts this journey and the trials it entails; the end of the film sees the three of them reach the Room and documents a brief period after they have left the Zone. However, the journey through the Zone is anything but straightforward. As the Stalker tells us: “There’s no going straight here.”7 This is made explicit almost as soon as the three principal characters have set foot inside the Zone. The Stalker reveals that the Room is just metres away, in a straight line across a seemingly unremarkable field. The Writer makes the first move, ignoring the Stalker’s warnings that it’s too dangerous and stepping out across the expanse. Soon, though, something unseen begins to affect him. Eventually he turns back and rejoins the group. And then, as he looks back at the Room, so tantalisingly near, he sees that an ethereal mist has rolled in, consuming the space in which he walked just seconds earlier. This episode demonstrates two things. First, that the Zone is both dangerous and sentient, able to react to trespassers. Second, that a journey is never as simple as going from A to B; journeys are not about starting points or endpoints, but about the “way” that is taken. This is crucial to the film, for the motif of physical journey represents the idea of spiritual journey, and the soteriology of self-making therein. A journey is transformative: the traveller is never the same person she was at her or- igin after she reaches her destination. This formation and transformation of self are captured in one recurring idea, repeated by the Stalker throughout the film: “Here you don’t go back the way you came.”8 The simple idea that anyone who ventures into the Zone and reaches the Room must find a different way out represents the wholly transformative power of the film’s journey. It is in this motif of journey/spiritual journey that the film’s soteriological frame- work is most clearly constructed around the triad of desire, hope, and belief. Desire, manifest both as desire for the wish-granting power of the Room and as the “soul 7 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 01:09:31. 8 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 00:49:21. 42 | James Lorenz www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 37–52