Stalker's Zone on the Jägala river

The heart of Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker was shot here. The long walk through the Zone was filmed in a few days at two deserted hydropower plants on the Jägala river near Tallinn. The location was dangerous. A chemical plant upstream poured poisonous liquid into the river. In one shot, snow falls in summer and white foam floats past. Sound designer Vladimir Sharun later said the foam was poison. Many women in the crew got allergic rashes on their faces. Sharun linked the location to the cancer deaths of Tarkovsky, actor Anatoly Solonitsyn and Tarkovsky's wife Larisa.