Seite - 44 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 06/01

yearn[ing] for healing” that Tarkovsky describes, is the first mover of the film’s jour- ney. This healing is identified with hope, or the restoration of hope, for the Zone only permits the presence of those “who have lost all hope”. The Room, also, is identified with hope: when the Professor reveals his plan to destroy the Room, the Stalker despairs, appealing to the Writer that “he is trying to destroy your hope!”9 The motif of journey signifies the hope of self-healing, where the restoration of hope is in many ways its own salvation. Yet the restoration of hope requires a fi- nal step – it requires belief, for how can one intend to hope without believing in the future? This is the key to the Stalker’s prayer, a rare sequence that breaks the film’s linear structure with a dream event, in which he prays for his companions, culminating with the petition: “Let them believe in themselves.”10 Again, the Room, their journey’s destination, is connected with belief. When the three travellers final- ly reach the threshold, the Stalker prepares them for their encounter by telling them enigmatically: “Most importantly you have to believe.”11 Afterwards, once the Stalk- er has returned from the Zone to his wife and daughter, he laments that “they don’t believe in anything”.12 The symbol of the Room is used to explore the interplay of desire, hope, and belief in the film. At its threshold all three are interrogated in light of their place in the salvific motif of journey. The episode at the threshold of the Room conveys another significant aspect of the motif of journey: borders or boundaries and the transgression of them. The characters’ journey to the Room involves many such “crossings”. There is the bor- der of the Zone, guarded by a substantial military presence; there is the threshold of the Room; and there is the disturbing traversal of the “meat grinder” (see fig. 2), the greatest trial with which the Zone tests trespassers. Within the motif and metaphor of journey, such boundaries represent significant transitions. This is enhanced by Tarkovsky’s cinematographic choices. For example, once the characters enter the Zone, the change from sepia to colour emphasises the significance of the “crossing” they have made. It is as if the characters now find themselves in a different world, as with the transition to colour in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, US 1939). Met- aphorically, the shift from sepia to colour signifies a transformation of perspective: the sudden saturation of the image signifies the sudden saturation of meaning for the characters – this is what they have risked so much to reach, this is “home at last”13 for the Stalker. Soteriologically, Tarkovsky is again using the motif of journey to explore transformation. The Stalker is transformed (and indeed transfigured into 9 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 02:11:55. 10 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 01:07:25. 11 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 02:06:16. 12 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 02:30:28. 13 Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR 1979), 00:39:50. The End of Desire? | 43www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 37–52