This handsome adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short story was made by Josef Heifitz, acknowledged master of Chekhov screen adaptations, to commemorate the centenary of the Russian author’s birth. Set among the middle classes of turn-of-the-century Czarist Russia, the film recounts the story of an affair between a banker from Moscow (Batalov, star of the classic The Cranes Are Flying), on holiday in Yalta, and an unhappily married young woman who, as the title suggests, walks her dog daily along the promenade. The relationship assumes a more tragic tone as each party realizes that the temporary liaison is actually a deep love that can never be requited fully. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival the year of its release.