This is the skull-style B1 poster for the Polish release (in 1983) of the first film in Steven Spielberg (opens in a new tab)‘s legendary Indiana Jones (opens in a new tab) series, Raiders of the Lost Ark (opens in a new tab). Written by George Lucas (opens in a new tab), who was in the middle of producing and releasing the original Star Wars trilogy, the story harks back to the adventure film serials (opens in a new tab) of the 1930s and 40s. Set in 1936, Harrison Ford (opens in a new tab) (also fresh from the set of The Empire Strikes Back (opens in a new tab)) plays the titular archaeologist adventurer who is hired by the US government to track down the legendary Ark of the Covenant (opens in a new tab) before an occult section of the Nazi party with nefarious intentions do so. The film is full of memorable characters, thrilling set-pieces and Ford treads a perfect, often comedic, line between surly reluctance and dashing heroism. The film would spawn two sequels over the next 8 years, with Spielberg and Ford returning for both, followed by a somewhat disappointing entry in 2008.

The designer and artist Jakub Erol was born in Zamość in 1941 and graduated from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1968. He worked as a prolific poster artist for over 25 years and designed several iconic images for both Polish and American films. Some of his other poster highlights include the bizarre image he conjured up for Ridley Scott’s Alien (opens in a new tab), a striking design for James Cameron’s The Terminator and the excellent poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Polishposter.com website features many of his designs (opens in a new tab), several of which are for sale, as does the Polish Poster Gallery (opens in a new tab).