the criterion blu ray
beautiful visuals. extremely slow paced. in its original release it was probably very dishonestly marketed as a sci fi movie. this is all psychology and introspection.the science aspect is so shallow it could easily be seen as supernatural instead.
amazing what they were able to accomplish on a shoestring budget. they shot the whole movie once, the film developers ruined the original reels so he had to re-shoot the whole thing on a smaller budget, LOL. what's really creepy is this movie came out before the Chernobyl disaster but it eerily seems like it was inspired by it. both this and the stalker video game were inspired by the same work, but they both deviate in some major ways.
this movie is absolutely not for everyone. the slow pace and lack of action will turn a lot of people off. there is one "stealth mission" fairly early in the movie, and there is a tiny bit of adventure when they are exploring but there are none of the thrills commonly scene in post apocalyptic environments (no violent mutants, LOL) also, there are subtitles since this is a Russian movie and i know some people hate reading subs...
it's an 8/10 for me. thought provoking, great set design, feels like it should explain the significance of the child character better