The article aims to briefly outline how Anton Chekhov‘s motifs can be traced in the famous film by Georgy Danelia "Autumn Marathon" produced in 1979. It is shown that ideologically and typologically the film inherits precisely the Chekhovian tradition. Namely, Chekhov‘s characters and the hero of Danelia‘s film, Andrei Buzykin, continue one classical line, personifying representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, incapable of action, unable to say "No." And this trait turns out to be fatal not only for Chekhov‘s heroes of the 19th century, but also for their descendants in Soviet Russia during the times of stagnation. And just like in Chekhov‘s work, existential depth reveals itself behind the everyday melodrama. In addition, similarities can also be traced at the level of poetics.