Cinema
The Lost Letter
Пропала грамота
Borys Ivchenko · 1972
Synopsis
The Cossack Vassyl and the Zaporozhian Andriï are charged with carrying a letter from the hetman to the empress, in Petersburg. The road is long and full of adventures: the village chief and his retinue, who have scores to settle with Vassyl, want to seize the letter, and the Devil himself gets involved; the Cossack fears neither the one nor the other.
Context
Ivan Drach's screenplay departs from Gogol's tale, mixing in borrowings from Kvitka-Osnovianenko, Kropyvnytsky and Storozhenko, along with popular beliefs and songs. Entrusted first to Viktor Hres, the film passed to Ivchenko, who shot it from May to September 1972 in the Poltava region and at Peterhof. Ivan Mykolaichuk plays Vassyl and chose its music. After a screening for the censors and a brief run in Moscow, the film was shelved and was officially released only years later.
Who it is for
A heroic comedy shot in Ukrainian and later dubbed into Russian, full of songs, devils and cards; Gogol's tale exists in French under the title La Missive perdue.
Prizes and reception
Banned for more than ten years, it now appears in the ranking of the hundred best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.
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