Your shadow marries your princess and steals your crown. Awkward.
The good-natured scholar Christian-Theodore arrives in a small country where miracles occur. He falls in love with the beautiful Princess, whose marriage is a matter of national importance, because her husband will become the new king. But unlike many “suitors”, selfish thoughts are alien to Christian-Theodore. He is sincerely fascinated by her beauty and releases his Shadow, hoping to get a faithful helper in his quest to marry the Princess. But the Shadow is the embodiment of egoism, greed and meanness. Quickly betraying the scholar, he marries the Princess himself and takes the royal throne.
Acting
Oleg Dal plays both saintly scholar AND his own smarmy evil twin.
Production
Soviet fairytale sets that look like storybook illustrations come alive.
Writing
Evgeny Schwartz's allegory sharper than most Oscar-bait 'prestige' scripts.
Director
Nadezhda Kosheverova
Oleg Dal
Scientist / his Shadow
Anastasiya Vertinskaya
Princess
Marina Neyolova
Annunziata
Lyudmila Gurchenko
Yuliya Julie
Vladimir Etush
Pietro
Andrey Mironov
Caesar Borgia
Sergei Filippov
First minister
Zinoviy Gerdt
Finance minister
Georgiy Vitsin
Doctor
Anatoli Abramov
Councilor
Konstantin Adashevsky
Oldest footman
Lyudmila Volynskaya
Tradeswoman
Kirill Gun
Courtier
Anatoly Korolkevich
Courtier
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Evgeny Schwartz wrote this allegory in 1940s USSR; the Shadow's rise to power through charm and lies hit dangerously close to home for Soviet audiences who'd lived through Stalin's cult of personality.
Oleg Dal, who plays both leads, was a beloved Soviet actor who died tragically young at 39—making his dual performance as idealist and corrupted self even more haunting in retrospect.
SU
