Nina Matviienko

Black Candle of the Bright Road. In memory of Vasyl Stus

Documentary trilogy about the thorny path of the famous Ukrainian poet, translator, political prisoner Vasyl Stus. Filmed in 1989-1992, it describes the life of the poet, the story of the destruction of the dissident by the Soviet authorities, highlights his influence on Ukrainian society during life and after his death, records the testimony of witnesses, films the liquidated Kuchino camp, in which Stus was imprisoned, the reburial of Stus, Lytvyn and Tykhy in 1989. Consists of three parts: «Come back to me, my memory» (Верни до мене, пам’яте моя), «In the white cold the sun of Ukraine» (У білій стужі сонце України), «Crucified on a black cross» (Розіп’ятий на чорному хресті).

Mavka: The Forest Song

Mavka, a Soul of the Forest, faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as Guardian of the Heart of the Forest when she falls for a human, a talented young musician named Lukas.

Illumination

The film is about microbiological scientists who are exploring the causes and mechanisms of the action of oncological diseases, looking for ways to fight this insidious and dangerous disease for humans.

A Deep Well

A music documentary about the Ukrainian folk songs and Nina Matviienko.

The Beast's Smile

The criminal chronicle of the provincial court, which is considering the case of the brutal murder of a girl. Many people find themselves involved in the case, and everyone has their own version...

When the Fern Blooms

Part folklore, part opera-ballet, this féerie presents local pagan traditions on the day of the summer solstice and historical events from Cossack times to the more recent 2014 Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity.

The Flower of the Fern

The theme of the film is the essence of the Ukrainian song as the cradle of the Ukrainian people, the whole nation. Its depth, the antiquity of its history. The film also tells the tragic story of the brilliant folk opera “When the Fern Blossoms“. This opera, together with the Veriovka Choir, was created by the world-renowned composer Yevhen Stankovych, our contemporary. However, the Soviet government of the time was afraid of Ukrainian song and banned the opera, breaking the set. The film features excerpts from the opera performed by the choir, as well as testimonies from the authors and performers about the work.

May Dandelion Snow

An engaged young man returns to his native village with his fiancée. Amid pastoral fields of dandelions, memories resurface of a youthful love for a local girl, Lida.

Svichka's Wedding

The story is based on a play by Ivan Kocherha about love against the backdrop of the craftsmen's uprising in Kyiv in the 16th century. The drama and the animation take place simultaneously in Podil, the center of bourgeois and craftsman life, and on mount Vzdykhalnytsia, where the Lithuanian castle is located. The director Tadeush Pavlenko takes the last three acts of Kocherha's play as a basis, placing the female character Melanka, the beloved of Ivan Svichka, at the center of the plot.

The Lost Letter

Folk comedy that tells the adventures of Ukrainian cossacks Vasyl and Andriy as they set out on a long journey to deliver a letter from their leader to the Russian empress in St. Petersburg.

Hey, There Is A Tree In The Field...

Documentary about the members of the folklore ensemble "Drevo" from the village of Kryachkivka of the Pyryatyn district of the Poltava region, performing ancient Ukrainian songs. The members of the ensemble were filmed during a meeting with People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR N. M. Matvienko.

Lullaby

The cartoon is based on one of the famous Ukrainian lullabies. It tells the story of a newborn baby, which is surrounded by the maternal care and affection. In the video sequence, unusual ornament is replaced by fairy tale characters and animals that appear near the baby lying in his cradle.

The Wedding Is Accused

The wedding turns into a crime scene. The wedding is like the apotheosis of meaninglessness, a metaphor for society. The story of the generation of the eighties with a tragic ending. The film uses the true facts of the criminal case.

Straw Bells

Vasyl Vilgota raised two sons. One of them died on the fronts of the Second World War, defending the homeland, and the second served as Hilfspolizei. Vilgota himself also helped the Nazis. Although he carefully hides this fact of his biography, there is one man who knows the truth about him.

Ivan Mykolaichuk. Trizna

The first movie about the actor who became the creator and symbol of Ukrainian poetic cinema Ivan Mykolaichuk, released 2 years after his death.

Farther Than an Arrow's Flight

The TV series is devoted to the topic of the artist's responsibility for every word he writes. In the center of the plot is the wandering of an artist-journalist of a Kyiv newspaper. He faces a number of internal problems: how to get along in a big city, the existence of true love and finding the answer to the eternal question - "Who am I?" External events echo the psychological crisis of the main character. In search of himself, he travels to the villages of the Kherson region that were flooded to create reservoirs - somewhere under the water column is his parents' native village, a metaphor for Ukrainian culture and historical memory mutilated in the 20th century. The man's concerns are closely related to the surrounding world: the atmosphere of the film reproduces the confusion of the entire nation: "What will happen next, after communism and its ideology?" In the yard, everything points to the imminent collapse of the perestroika.