![]() Dovzhenko declared this a “Bolshevik film”, and what I have read suggests that he truly believed in the Soviet project. In Zvenyhora, Dovzhenko’s intention seems to have been to repurpose Ukrainian culture and myth towards current Soviet ideals: as the accompanying book says, “Dovzhenko was concerned with legitimization of Ukrainian history through ideology”. This sets up a predictable opposition through which Soviet ideology is glorified. In the present-day manifestation of the story, the grandfather has two sons: Pavlo, a traditionalist and member of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) Army and Tymish (above), a committed Bolshevik. Soviet ideology and Ukrainian nationalism ![]() The treasure and curse of Zvenyhora is implied to derive from this past event both this and the monk scene operate at a curious place of both the mythic and the literal level. Yet ultimately, she ends up as the prize of a Varangian leader. Later in the film, the grandfather relates the story of Roksana, who warns her people of an imminent attack on their settlement by Varangian (Viking) warriors. But I suppose that when you have a role like this on your résumé, you don’t need to work again. In some mysterious way, the monk is the guardian of Zvenyhora.Īs far as I can tell, this role was the only film credit for the actor, L. The bandits rush him, but are compelled to stop when the monk raises his hand in halt he throws down his hand and disappears, smoke billowing from the open door from which he emerged, and the bandits are instantly smoten to the ground. Somewhere in Ukraine, there must be a metal band called Zvenyhora. A goblet is resting on the ground the bandit seizes it, and it turns to a broken bottle.Īfter picking off some of the Poles and scaring the rest away, the old man and the bandit leader happen upon a door in the ground: The old man and the bandit leader see a treasure chest resting in a hollowed-out tree stump when they rush to it, it disappears. ![]() He tells them that the Poles are lurking around Zvenyhora, sacred place: “they dig holes, search cellars: to steal our Ukrainian treasures is what they want.” One of the most evocative scenes occurs early in the film, when the grandfather encounters a group of bandits (I am not 100% sure, but I think they are Haidamaky). Yet it seems not a mistake-his birthdate is given as 1892 on several pages of the Ukrainian Re-Vision book and also in online sources.īecause of the elliptical nature of the film, it is almost impossible to describe Zvenyhora’s narrative indeed I’m not sure that I have grasped all of the events that take place. Side note: according to the dates given in the book, Nademsky was 35 at the time of Zvenyhora, which seems bizarre to me. The central figure drawing the film together is that of the grandfather, who recurs throughout the different sections of the film. As is common in many of the best-remembered Soviet films of this period, people in Zvenyhora are archetypes rather than fully-fledged characters. Or 17 th century Haidamaky, those awful horsemen, and the senseless slaughter of 1914? And a glorious string of civil war battles from our Great Revolution?Īn ambitious project of representing a huge span of Ukrainian history. Or my millennial, primeval, charming, and yet slightly cunning grandpa? What would a filmgoer say to me if I rolled a whole two-thousand metres of film-encompassing an entire millennium-past his eyes? Without any intrigues, or love stories, or glimpses of Asta Nielsen or Malynovska? The plot, or at least the general concept, can best be described by Dovzhenko himself: Its mythic scope, cyclical view of history, and use of symbolism make it an extremely unique film. ![]() Though not his first work, this was the film that really launched Dovzhenko’s reputation. The centrepiece of the boxset is Dovzhenko’s 1927 film Звенигора ( Zvenyhora usually known by its Russian transliteration, Zvenigora) almost a third of the pages of the book are devoted to this film. It’s a wonderful publication: six restored films on DVD, accompanied by a thick text with a lot of historical and biographic information for each film, in both Ukrainian and English. Earlier this year, I managed to get hold of the DVD boxset Ukrainian Re-Vision (Укрїнське Німе), published by the State Film Agency of Ukraine in collaboration with the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Centre in Kyiv.
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