Ukrainian

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The story is set in a small village during the German occupation of Ukraine. When one of the local partisans kills a German officer, the occupants vow to kill the whole village if the perpetrator is not found and delivered to them. What would your conscience tell you to do if the choice was between your own life and that of an entire village? Conscience is a striking combination of expressionistic, metaphorical images and dramaturgic realism, and the soundtrack darkens the mood. Due to the film’s themes, it did not see wide release until perestroika. Made by students of the directing-acting workshop of Vladimir Denisenko at the Kiev National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, it was only allowed to be made because it was never to be screened. Nowadays, the film is considered a classic of Ukrainian cinema.Read More »

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THE LOST MASTERPIECE OF SOVIET CINEMA

Belye Tuchi – or as it should be called, Bili Khmary – is a movie that has somehow got lost and is now all but forgotten. The title is usually translated into English as White Clouds but it’s really closer to something like “the dark clouds are coming” but any translation will be miss the correct subtle meaning. The movie was directed by the Ukrainian Rollan Serhiienko, although IMDb mistakenly lists him as Sergiyenko. He was better known as a documentary film maker and later made the award winning Bell of Chernobyl. His career as a feature film director only produced two movies of which this is the best.Read More »

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Mavka, a water nymph, loves Lukash, a country youth. Their brief happiness ends when Lukash is forced to marry the shrewish Kilina. The Spirit of the Forest turns Lukash into a wolf as punishment for his infidelity. The strength of Mavka’s love breaks the spell, but Kilina curses the nymph, transforming her into a weeping willow.Read More »

It was a common habit in Soviet schools to draw the intimate organs on all portraits in textbooks.Read More »

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The film depicts the 1932-33 Soviet-engineered famine in Ukraine, and is based on the novel The Yellow Prince by Vasyl Barka.

Emanuel Levy writes in his blog (edited for spoilers): “Through the eyes of Katrannyk, his wife Kateryna, and their three children, pic shows the devastating effects of the mass famine caused by the state’s seizure of crops. It forcefully chronicles the brutality of Stalin’s army, their raids on fields and physical torture of farmers. Death is everywhere: the ground is covered with bodies; desolate farmers hang themselves on trees.Read More »

Story about Oleksa Dovbush, a famous Ukrainian outlaw, who became a folk hero, often compared to Robin Hood.Read More »

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Kira Muratova, the grande dame of Eastern European cinema returns with her richest, most imposing vision of societal decay and personal efflorescence since The Aesthenic Syndrome encapsulated a very different moment in the former Soviet Union’s history in 1989. Set largely in the vast central railway station of Kiev, a casino, a shopping arcade and the snow-blanketed streets between, Melody is a majestically realised pageant of the burgeoning new economy of inequality. Like Dickensian orphans or children in a fairytale, a motherless brother and sister arrive in the city and traipse through festive Christmas streets looking for their respective fathers…Read More »

Synopsis:
MAIDAN chronicles the civil uprising against the regime of president Yanukovych that took place in Kiev (Ukraine) in the winter of 2013/14.
The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong, in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protestors and riot police. MAIDAN is a portrait of an awakening nation, rediscovering its identity.Read More »

Banned by the Soviet authorities, Vecher nakanune Ivana Kupala (The Eve of Ivan Kupalo) is widely held to be one of the masterpieces of Ukrainian Poetic Cinema. Adapted from a short story of Gogol, which had its roots in Ukrainian folklore, the film depicts an almost Faustian pact, in which Piotr makes an unholy deal with Bassaruv in order that he may win the hand of Pidorka from her father. The director Yuri Ilyenko brings the same rich, vivid imagery that he lent to Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors where he worked as the cinematographer. The film often makes difficult first viewing for unaccustomed viewers due to its hallucinatory nature, but its lucid tapestry renders it a mandatory experience.Read More »