the main roles were played by alexander kaidanovsky and nikolai grinko. solonitsin and alisa freindlikh. the film was difficult to shoot. torkovsky was constantly dissatisfied with something. he forced the strugatskys change the script, rejected already filmed material, argued with the operators and repeatedly asked to increase the budget. and the state cinema, the head of which treated the director warmly, gave the go-ahead. as a result , the film’s budget exceeded a million rubles, a fantastic sum for soviet cinema. as the edits progressed, torkovsky systematically removed everything science-fiction from the plot. in adventures in philosophical debate. previously, the future was only a continuation of the present, all changes loomed somewhere beyond the horizons, but now the future has merged into present. they filmed in estonia, next to stalin, near leningrad, in the mosfilm pavilions in moscow itself. stalker, unlike many of tarkovsky's other films, was almost free of censors, but reviews appeared only a year later, after the film was shown at the kak