The Literate Man

Documentary about post-Soviet society’s abandonment of cinema in favour of the free market.

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).

The first film of documentary trilogy «Black Candle of the Bright Road. In memory of Vasyl Stus» covers the events of Vasyl Stus's life from birth to the beginning of the 70s. It contains interviews with his mother Iryna Stus, comrade Vasyl Shymanskyi, Roman Korohodskyi, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mykhailyna Kotsyubynska, Marharyta Dovhan and others, photos from the times school and institute studies, army service, postgraduate study at the Institute of Literature, fragments from letters and essays.

The third film of documentary trilogy «Black Candle of the Bright Road. In memory of Vasyl Stus» covers the events from the return from Kolyma in 1979 to the reburial on November 19, 1989. Interviews with the last cellmate of the writer Leonid Borodin, former political prisoners Vasyl Ovsienko, Levko Lukyanenko provide an opportunity to recreate the last episodes of Vasyl Stus's life: the conflict with Romashov, a fictional report about Stus's behavior in the cell, his emotional explosion due to slander, the announcement of a hunger strike, solitary confinement, night from September 3 to 4, 1985.

The second film of documentary trilogy «Black Candle of the Bright Road. In memory of Vasyl Stus» covers the period from the first arrest on December 12, 1972 to the death of the father in June 1978. Interviews with his son Dmytro Stus, wife Valentyna Popelyukh, comrades Oleh Orach, Yevhen Sverstyuk, Opanas Zalyvakha, Ivan Kalynychenko, Leonid Seleznenko, Semen Hluzman, Iryna Kalynets and others reveal the details of the search, imprisonment, trial on September 7, 1972, and the prisoner's life of the writer.