A Room Full of Cats That Grants Wishes

Today We, Zarathustra the Celestial Cat reveal to you the director’s cut of the iconic scene in the room that grants wishes in the famous movie “Stalker” by Andrey Tarkovsky:

In Stalker, perhaps Andrei Tarkovsky’s most famous film, a guide, Stalker, leads two men through an area known only as ‘The Zone’ to find a room that grants wishes. The “Meat Grinder” tunnel sets the scene for the film’s emotional climax, placing the viewer in a dark, grey industrial tunnel; a shifting, terrifying vision of human consciousness. In the commonly known version of the movie, the room was full of vast mounds of white sand, accompanied by the diegetic sound of echoes and footsteps, turning into a captivating, immersive space. A strange, grey indoor landscape becomes the setting for the monologue of the melancholic Writer, staring directly into the camera as he confesses the fragility of his ego and the hopelessness of life.

We visited the great master during the shooting of the film and suggested to him an idea to turn the dunes of the room into Our multiple personalities. Thus the landscape of the room showed the most cherished wish of every human: to have a hundred cats peacefully sleeping around him. The scene got a different meaning and it became clear why the Writer wants to live eternally: he wanted to take care of so many cats!

But the Soviet censorship of the time when the movie was created 1979, forced the director to remake the scene without cats because they didn’t want to give any hope to the Soviet people.

In 1984, Tarkovsky, who failed to get artistic freedom in the Soviet Union emigrated to Italy. He never returned to his motherland.