Perspective Film Series:
Stalker (1979), dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
March 22
5:30 PM | Dome Theatre
In an unnamed country at an unspecified time is a fiercely protected post-apocalyptic wasteland known as The Zone. An illegal guide, whose mutant child suggests great horrors within The Zone, leads a writer and a scientist into the heart of the devastation in search of a mythical place known as The Room. Anyone who enters The Room will supposedly have any of their earthly desires fulfilled.
Adapting the science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky for what would become his final film made in the Soviet Union, Andrei Tarkovsky crafted a demanding yet visually mesmerizing work. At once a spiritual parable and a response to modern political unease, Stalker is ultimately a meditation on the nature of cinema itself.
Country: Soviet Union
161 minutes, in Russian with English subtitles.
Disclaimer: This film contains some difficult subject matter and imagery, including nudity and references to weaponry, which may be triggering for some viewers.
FREE for members. Non-members: $10—your ticket to this screening includes admission to Contemporary Calgary. Our galleries are open from 12-5 PM for viewing prior to attending the program.
About Perspective Film Series
Curated by associate curator Muriel N. Kahwagi, the 2026 edition of Perspective is conceived as a sustained meditation on disaster in its broadest and most resonant terms. While ecological catastrophe remains a central point of reference, the series extends beyond literal scenarios of environmental collapse or speculative visions of planetary ruin, approaching disaster as a condition that permeates both collective structures and private lives, unfolding across social, political, and emotional terrains. In this sense, disaster is understood not only as a single event, but as an ongoing state – slow, uneven, and often normalized through systems of power, habit, and belief. The films in this series examine how moments of crisis reshape perception and behaviour, revealing fractures in meaning, and reflecting on the ways in which hope may persist long after the moment of rupture has passed.
About the Curator
Muriel N. Kahwagi ((she/her)) is a writer and curator, working primarily across publishing and programming. Her research is centered on the politics of collecting and archiving the performative; and the act of listening as a form of preservation in and of itself. In 2023, she was the TD Curatorial Fellow at Art Windsor-Essex, and a curator as part of Vtape’s Curatorial Incubator, v.19. She is currently the Assistant Curator at Contemporary Calgary, and a programmer at the Toronto Arab Film Festival.
