JUNOON 1978 Shyam Benegal PETER STRAUSFELD UK ACADEMY QUAD POSTER

Original British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster for the 1978 Shyam Benegal Drama JUNOON, based on the story "A Flight of Pigeons" by Ruskin Bond and starring Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Jennifer Kendal, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Jalal Agha, Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter, Pearl Padamsee, Nafisa Ali, Ismat Chughtai, Geoffrey Kendal and Deepti Naval.

Set during the 1857 War of Independence, an obsessed Indian Nawab desires to wed a young Anglo-Indian woman, but the girl's obstinate mother stands between them.

The poster art is by Peter Strausfeld. Strausfeld was interned in the Isle of Man at the Onchan Internment Camp during the War where he met the Austrian producer George Hoellering. In 1947 Hoellering opened the Academy Cinema on Oxford Street and invited Strausfeld to produce some posters for the cinema which he did in wood and lino-cuts till his death in 1980.

The Academy Cinema, built in 1913, was saved from conversion to a shopping arcade in 1928 by Elsie Cohen of the original Film Society, who proceeded to run it as an arthouse which is how it was ran till it's closure in 1986.

The posters became a London landmark, in fact very few were used outside of London, resulting in very small print runs of 3-500.

Printed by Ward & Foxlow

The poster is in fine unfolded (rolled) condition.