Screenwriter Antonín Máša wrote a television production Zurvalec based on Turgenev's short story. It is a psychological drama about the conflicting encounter between Lieutenant Kister and the dangerous duelant Captain Luchkov, who drives away the boredom of an empty life in a backwater province with a series of violent acts. The tense relationship between the two men, expressing a contradiction of creative tolerance and aggression, is exacerbated by their interest in a woman who succumbs to admiration for the "predator" Luchkov. The tragic confrontation of different approaches to life raises the question of the possibilities of defending human decency over evil.
