Stalker -1979

Naiha Raza
 Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers.
Over his wife's numerous objections, a man rises in the dead of night: he's a stalker, one of a
handful who have the mental gifts (and who risk imprisonment) to lead people into the Zone to
the Room, a place where one's secret hopes come true. That night, he takes two people into the
Zone: a popular writer who is burned out, cynical and questioning his genius; and a quiet scientist
more concerned about his knapsack than the journey. In the deserted Zone, the approach to the
Room must be indirect. As they draw near, the rules seem to change and the stalker faces a
crisis 1

J
ust as a living organism, the city exists to be a complex place it is here
that all the realities of the human emotion, work and desire manifest. In a
city a heterotopia becomes the important part; a place that is the inverse
of a city.
In the movie stalker the alien zone perhaps comes from a deeper human
conscience for a need of a realized dream, i.e. the zone is a physical
manifestation of a collective human desire. If we relate this to a city, the zone
becomes a heterotopia: the inverse of a city, a place for experiment of
desires that can be brought to reality. For example a school is an
experimental place where humans may reach a collective desire for
knowledge.
An idea can manifest into the real world but first one must overcome
obstacles and hardships to get there, just like the stalker had to do in order to
get to the zone.
Thus heterotopia: an experimental, inverted place where an effort input is
required in order to get a desire out into the real world.
Also the heterotopia like the zone is a constantly changing entity even
though the city itself changes as a whole; it is the heterotopia that actually
maneuvers that change. So, Heterotopia: an inverted and constantly change
inducing area where an effort input is required in order to get a desire into
the real world.
Scaling in by considering the zone to be a city, the room can be called an
enclave and the ever changing route can be the armature.
Obvious distinction between the pub and the zone by color can be read as
the zone (heterotopia) being the developing node that propel the pub(city)
forward and it is through these nodes can the development of the city can be
evaluated.
Conclusively, Heterotopia: an inverted and a constantly change inducing area
that effects the development of a city directly, where an effort input is
required in order to get a desire into the real world.
Some other movies and books that may explain the idea of a heterotopia in
similar frame is Coraline directed by Henry Selick and Alice in Wonderland
written by Lewis Carroll.

1
jhailey@hotmail.com, Internet movie database(IMDB), Plot Summary for Stalker-1979
< http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/plotsummary>