Guardians, that film being dubbed “Russia’s Avengers movie,” isn’t the only genre flick to hail from the country. Sony’s international division has released a new English-dubbed trailer for The Duelist, a work that garnered some buzz in 2015 after it was announced to be the third Russian-language film will be digitally re-mastered for IMAX in 2016. The Duelist is bound for IMAX theaters in Russia and select international markets later this year, but it remains to be seen whether or not the U.S. will have that privilege. However, genre-lovers can at least get a look at the visually compelling tale about a the vengeful duelist who never loses, thanks to this new trailer.
With lines like, “You’ve died so many times, you will never die again,” “He damned me years ago,” and, “No bullet can harm him,” it’s difficult to ignore any supernatural elements that may or may not be at play. But the story itself centers around a man named Yakovlev, once an exiled former officer from St. Petersburg who returns to fight as an impossible-to-beat duelist representative (i.e. the person who subs in for a gunman during a duel). As it turns out, Yakovlev has a hidden agenda of his own — he’s back to seek out those who disgraced him.
Watch the trailer below:
Stalingrad, from director Fedor Bondarchuk, was the first Russian-language film to get its IMAX release, and it’s also a product of Non-Stop Productions. The other one is more known in the mainstream thanks to its Oscar nomination, The Leviathan.
The Duelist is written and directed by indie filmmaker Alexey Mizgirev, is produced by Alexander Rodnyansky, and boasts a cast that includes Pyotr Fyodorov (Stalingrad), Vladimir Mashkov (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Yuri Kolokolnikov (Game of Thrones), and Martin Wuttke (Inglorious Basterds).
Here’s the plot synopsis:
An adventure film, with dramatic and thriller elements set against the backdrop of palaces and the noble view of the Russian capital, The Duelist centers on Yakovlev, a retired officer, who returns to St. Petersburg from a long exile. While in the city, he fights as a duelist's representative. (Nineteenth-century Russian duel law allowed for a duelist to be replaced by any one person.) Though Yakovlev fights for money, he also seeks honor and revenge against those who disgraced him, therein, challenging the Russian Providence. Yakovlev fearlessly plays with destiny as an example of traditional romantic characters from the Russian Classics.
