Vasyl Symchych
1915 - 1978
The Stone Cross
Leonid Osyka
Daniil Ilchenko, Катерина Матейко
Kaminnyi khrest (Stone Cross, 1968) told the powerful story of a proud farmer who decided to emigrate to Canada during the 1890s. The film captured moments shortly before the farmer set off for his voyage and had to say “good-bye” to his native village, friends and relatives. The internal conflict of the farmer in doubt about his decision became the central focus of the film. Like Vasyl Stefanyk’s novella that inspired it, the film is a meditation on the sense of one’s belonging, the sense of one’s own culture and what it means to abandon it.
The Stone Cross
Živjeti za inat
Yuri Ilyenko
Vladimir Popović, Ivan Mykolaichuk
The movie takes us through the trials and tribulations of Petar I Petrovic, the man who united Montenegro in the 18th century and led them in the Battle of Krusi against a huge Turkish army to return victorious and pave the first path towards economic development.
Defying Everybody
Захар Беркут
Leonid Osyka
Василь Симчич, Ivan Gavrilyuk
This film is based on the classic novel of the same name by writer Ivan Franko, one of the most famous figures of Ukrainian literature. It is set during the 1200s and the invasion of the medieval Ukrainian-Russian state of Rus' by Chengis Khan's Golden Horde. Due to its having been produced during the Soviet era, the story's aspect of class-conflict between the "heroic" peasantry and the "decadent" noble particularly emphasized here.
Zakhar Berkut
