Stalker 1979 lost trailer

Andrey Tarkovskiy edited this rough trailer for western studio executives while in negotiations to have 20th Century Fox distribute Stalker internationally. Corporate foot-dragging and a poor critical reception inside the USSR left the film in limbo for months after its domestic premiere, and the deal was ultimately terminated after the invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. A print of the lost trailer was found among the possessions of Mosfilm employee Georgiy Shutkin following his death in 2007. It was digitally restored for the film’s thirtieth anniversary, but not released because of legal disputes between Mosfilm and the Shutkin family. Tarkovskiy never commented publicly on the similarities between his trailer and one shown for a western science fiction film some weeks later.