Propala Hramota
| Propala hramota The lost letter |
|
|---|---|
 Cossack Vasyl (played by Ivan Mykolaychuk) |
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| Directed by | Borys Ivchenko |
| Written by | Ivan Drach |
| Starring | Vasyl Simchych Ivan Mykolaychuk Mykhaylo Holubovych Lidia Vakula Fedir Stryhun |
| Music by | Ukrainian folklore Ivan Mykolaychuk (arranged) |
| Cinematography | Vitaliy Zymovets |
| Release date(s) | 1972 |
| Running time | 70 min |
| Country | Soviet Union (Ukrainian SSR) |
| Language | Ukrainian |
Propala hramota (Ukrainian: Пропала Грамота, The lost letter) is a 1972 Soviet musical-comedy film by Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kiev. It is one of many films which were eventually banned by the Soviet censorship. It was broadcast only in the early 1990th, after the fall of the Union. The movie is considered a pearl of the national Ukrainian cinema. The film is based on the novella by Nikolai Gogol.
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[edit] Synopsis
Cossack Vasyl (Ivan Mykolaychuk) get himself prepared for a mounted voyage to Peterburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. Vasyl carries a hramota (a sealed official document) given to him by the hetman through his secretary, Pereverny-kruchenko, that is rumored to cost ten Poods of gold. Vasyl's wife sews the hramota into his hat and his father (Vasyl Symchych) gives him the magic tobacco to repel evil and an advice to find a good co-journeyman.
The film shows the adventures of Vasyl in sequences that are filled with Ukrainian culture, and shows Ukrainian cuisine, costumes, traditions, mystical and comedy filled situations, anecdotes, and plethora of obstacles which Vasyl needs to overcome. One his way together with an evil servant (chort) he comes to a river crossing where ferry carries people from one side to another. There he finds his partner in arms, Andriy, a zaporozhian cossack. Further along the way something happened to the papers when they stopped at an inn for the rest. When Vasyl and Andriy came to Peterburg they handed over the hramota to the baroness von Likhtenberg who passed them to the empress. The documents did not carry any information and Vasyl had to leave without results.
After that on the way home both of them decided to shoot each other. As they were saying in unison the Nicene Creed (Apostles' Creed) they heard a voice that identified itself as Kudz. It was a nearby laying rock who said that he was the same chort and the witch turned him into a rock after he helped Vasyl. Kudz asked them to throw him in the nearby marsh not to cause any further harm to random travelers on the road. As Vasyl with his friend near their village, Dykanka, they met a little boy that asked them to let him go to see the cossack Vasyl who supposed to come back from the empress. Then they has arrived and were met by the rest of the village population. Moments later everybody awaits Vasyl again by his house to tell the story of his rendezvous with the empress. In the last scene he wishes the little boy to have a loyal horse, open field, and always be at people's service. The scene is accompanied by the triumphant Cossack march of the Ukrainian folkloric song about Sahaidachny.
[edit] Cast
- Ivan Mykolaychuk - cossack Vasyl
- Lidia Vakula - cossack's wife, the empress
- Fedir Stryhun - zaporozhets, cossack's partner
- Zemfira Tsakhilova - Odarka, baroness von Likhtenberg
- Mykhailo Holubovych - evil man
- He's seen on the background of the photo as the owner of the inn (Ukrainian: корчмар, korchmar) in the episode.
- Volodymyr Hlukhyi - weird man
- Vasyl Symchych - cossack's father
- Anatoliy Barchuk - cossack Ivan
- Volodymyr Shakalo - cossack Petro
[edit] Administrative issues
Initially, the film was supposed to be directed by Viktor Hres, featuring Anatoly Papanov in the lead role. However, when Hres became suddenly ill, he offered it to Borys Ivchenko. The latter agreed on the condition that the main role would be given to Ivan Mykolaychuk. The script was remade and the movie was filmed in 1972 at the Dovzhenko Film Studios. However, Soviet censorship banned it from being screened. Nevertheless, in 1973 the Bureau of Soviet cinematography propaganda in Moscow published 50 thousand pamphlets with the images of Ivan Mykolaychuk in role of Cossack Vasyl.
The movie was finally shown after the fall of the Soviet Union. It received the Golden Pagoda during the movie festival in Bangkok. All the songs in the movie are contributed by Ivan Mykolaychuk, who also helped Ivan Drach in writing the movie's script.
[edit] See also
- The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...Church (1831), by Mykola Hohol.
- The Lost Letter (1945), a Soviet, Russian-language cartoon filmed in Moscow.
- Annychka (1968), another film by Borys Ivchenko.
- Cinema of Ukraine
- Dovzhenko Film Studios
