DUEL

Original Russian 25 1/4 inch x 40 1/4 inch Poster for the 1961 Tatyana Berezantseva & Lev Rudnik Russian Drama DUEL, based on the novel by Anton Chekhov and starring Vera Burlakova, Vladimir Druzhnikov, Irina Fyodorova, Emmanuil Geller, Yelena Kuzmina and Georgi Georgiu.

A bored young man can find nothing that interests him. Even his mistress has become dull to him. His lover’s husband dies and now the fellow finds himself expected to marry her. Unwilling to place himself deeper into an already insurmountable rut, he decides to flee, but first he must borrow some money from a lender who refuses to help out when he learns the youth’s reasons for borrowing it. Enraged, the young man challenges the lender to a duel. Fortunately both men miss each other. Still, the close call with death has a profound effect upon the youth who suddenly approaches life with renewed zest and vigour.

Poster art by Alexander Iosifovich Shamash (1915–1987). Soviet graphic artist, poster artist and journalist. Member of the Union of Artists (MOSH) and the Union of Journalists of the USSR. His posters are stored in the collections of the Russian State Library.

The poster is in very good condition.