The dramatization of the Czech short story "The Duel", bearing director Alexandru Dabija's signature, is basically a show about couples, about the man-woman relationship, looked at as a romance. A romance in which the moral obligations of the two are regarded and analyzed in detail as if it is a research carried out all the way to its dissection. A dull fight between ideals and failures, somewhere secluded from the rest of the world, where Russians and Chechens live dramas dawdling in a disposition of pleasant laziness that creates apparent dilemmas. A miserable couple in a society of old prejudice and tradition. A futile struggle to escape their own defeat and a duel... that has no winners. A show of the moods, with a subtle interpretation, that familiarizes us with the superficial level of these frustrations. Unfortunately, doctor Cehov has no cure for them and the diagnostic is vitally compromised: "Live badly, ladies and gentlemen!"

Translated by: Stoian Irina

MTTLC, University of Bucharest