“Mirror”, Original Japanese First Release Movie Poster 1980, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) L285

This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical poster printed for the film’s first Japanese release in 1980. Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror (鏡 / Kagami; Russian title: ЗЕРКАЛО / Zerkalo) was produced by Mosfilm in 1975 and released theatrically in Japan by Nihonkai Eiga (日本海映画) on 14 June 1980.

Starring Margarita Terekhova, Oleg Yankovsky, Ignat Daniltsev, and Filipp Yankovsky, the film is Tarkovsky’s most intimate and autobiographical work. This exceptional Japanese first-release design combines monumental typography, layered imagery, and poetic text to evoke the film’s central themes of memory, childhood, loss, family, and the elusive passage of time.

Film background

Mirror does not follow a conventional linear narrative. Instead, it unfolds through the fragmented memories of an unseen narrator, moving fluidly between his childhood before the Second World War, his family’s wartime experiences, dreams, historical newsreel footage, and the emotional difficulties of his adult life.

Margarita Terekhova performs the dual roles of the narrator’s mother, Maria, and his former wife, Natalia, intentionally blurring the distinction between memory and present experience. The adult narrator is heard but never fully seen, while members of Tarkovsky’s own family—including his mother—appear within the film.

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written with Aleksandr Misharin, the film was photographed by Georgy Rerberg and scored by Eduard Artemyev. Poems written by Tarkovsky’s father, Arseny Tarkovsky, are read over the images, further dissolving the boundaries between autobiography, family history, cinema, and poetry.

Initially granted only a restricted domestic release in the Soviet Union, Mirror was regarded by officials as difficult and excessively personal. It has subsequently become one of the most revered works in world cinema and is frequently described as Tarkovsky’s most personal film.

Poster design

This Japanese B2 features a bold, highly original composition dominated by the enormous sky-blue kanji title:

「鏡」
“Mirror”

The brush-textured character occupies almost the entire upper half of the poster, functioning simultaneously as typography and as a translucent visual screen. Behind it, indistinct images of flame, domestic interiors, and remembered spaces appear to pass through the title like unstable fragments of consciousness.

Above the kanji, the original Russian title appears in vivid magenta:

「ЗЕРКАЛО」

The lower half presents a warm portrait of Margarita Terekhova as Maria/Natalia, smiling gently within a dark domestic interior. The relative intimacy of this image contrasts sharply with the monumental scale of the title above, reflecting the film’s movement between private human experience and the vast, uncontrollable architecture of memory.

The upper-right text incorporates lines from the poetry of Arseny Tarkovsky:

「……そして雨。
しずくは冷たい枝をつたわり
言葉でもハンカチでも
ぬぐうことはできない。」

Approximately:

“…And then rain. Drops run down the cold branches, and neither words nor a handkerchief can wipe them away.”

The accompanying campaign copy reads:

「夢…追憶…運命。
あやなす心の深奥を
華麗な映像で描く
鬼才タルコフスキーの世界。」

Approximately:

“Dreams… memories… destiny. The world of the brilliant Tarkovsky, depicting the woven depths of the human heart through magnificent imagery.”

The left side carries the principal creative credits, including Andrei Tarkovsky, Aleksandr Misharin, Georgy Rerberg, Eduard Artemyev, Arseny Tarkovsky, and poetry reader Innokenty Smoktunovsky. The lower-left corner retains the original Mosfilm 1975 production credit and Nihonkai Eiga Japanese distribution marking.

The combination of the saturated blue title, magenta Russian lettering, glowing fire imagery, and Terekhova’s intimate portrait gives the poster exceptional graphic balance and considerable display presence.

Cultural significance

Mirror helped expand the possibilities of cinematic narrative by organising its images according to the associative logic of memory rather than conventional chronology. Childhood, historical trauma, dreams, domestic spaces, poetry, and newsreel material are presented as parts of a single subjective consciousness.

Its imagery—including the burning barn, wind passing through a field, water entering abandoned rooms, and a levitating figure—has become central to Tarkovsky’s concept of cinema as “sculpting in time.” The film’s influence can be traced through generations of filmmakers exploring memory, family history, and non-linear visual storytelling.

Condition

Excellent. Please review the photograph—it shows the exact poster for sale.

This poster is an original Japanese theatrical B2 from the 1980 first-release campaign.
It is not a reproduction or a modern reprint.

It is approximately 46 years old.

Certificate of Authenticity included.