Night Raids

An episode of the liberation movement in Ukraine - the uprising of Kolievs (serfs, artisans and fishermen) against the tyranny of the feudal lords and the Polish nobility, which ended with a brutal massacre performed by a Russian punitive expedition in 1768.

Adapted from the opera written by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky.

Khrystia, a peasant woman from a provincial village, decided to leave for the city in search of a better life. But, having not found there either a better life or happiness, she perishes ...

The trials and tribulations of Natalka and Petro. The sweethearts plan to get married, however, Natalka's father does not approve of the marriage because Petro's not affluent enough to keep Natalka in the manner he thought that she should be kept. Petro goes off to earn the required fortune. With no news from Petro for five years, Natalka succumbs to her mother's wishes and finally accepts her next offer of marriage, which happens to come from an old, but relatively wealthy government official.

This revolutionary epic likens the push for industrialization of Soviet Ukraine with the battle for Perekop during the Civil War. A missing plow blade is presented as a symbol of the country's backward peasant economy that needs to be transformed in the course of the industrial construction. In an onslaught of rapidly changing images, Ukrainian village with its peasants suspicious of everything new, dramatically collides with the frenzy of working factories, plants, and mines.

A young man, Ivan, is forcefully mobilised and sent to fight in the Caucasian War as a soldier of the Russian Empire by his landlord, leaving his wife behind. In the Caucasus, Ivas experiences the fierce local resistance to the Russian military, and returns home to launch an uprising against the Russian government.

A group of peasants comes to see Leo Tolstoy and his wife, the Countess, to request some land. Tolstoy must explain to them that it is his wife who has authority over their land-holdings, and she will not help them. Stung by their negative reaction to him, Tolstoy becomes increasingly preoccupied with the problems of the poor. This leads to a number of conflicts with his wife, and then to a deep despondency, as the noted writer continues vainly to search for answers to the sufferings he sees around him.

The lost film about the peasant rebellion of the 18th century in Ukraine, led by Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Honta. The history of the haydamak movement became a trigger for authors to have experiments in the field of film language: shooting against the background of black velvet, focus on the static character of the picture, the sculptural nature of composition mise-en-scène solutions, replacement of dramatic collisions with cinema engravings depicting the historical past.

It is a life story of one of the most famous Ukrainians and certainly a faithful servant of his nation, of Hryhorii Skovoroda. Neither promises, nor suggestion of high ranks, nor flattery, could shake his fidelity to his ideals. A wandering philosopher, who loved Ukraine with all his heart, he left an eternal trace in its history and culture.