Propala Hramota
Encyclopedia
Propala hramota 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 broadcasted 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
.
) 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 Pood
s 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.
. 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.
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. It is one of many films which were eventually banned by the Soviet censorship. It was broadcasted only in the early 1990th, after the fall of the Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The movie is considered a pearl of the national Ukrainian cinema. The film is based on the novella by Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
.
Synopsis
Cossack Vasyl (Ivan MykolaychukIvan Mykolaychuk
Ivan Mykolaychuk was a Ukrainian actor, producer, and screen writer.He is best known for playing the Hutsul Ivan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , based on Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky's book of the same name...
) get himself prepared for a mounted voyage to Peterburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, the capital of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Vasyl carries a hramota (a sealed official document) given to him by the hetman
Hetman
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
through his secretary, Pereverny-kruchenko, that is rumored to cost ten Pood
Pood
Pood , is a unit of mass equal to 40 funt . It is approximately 16.38 kilograms . It was used in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Pood was first mentioned in a number of documents of the 12th century....
s of gold. Vasyl's wife sews the hramota into his hat and his father (Vasyl Symchych
Vasyl Symchych
Vasyl Ilich Simchych was a Ukrainian actor.Simchych was born in Seredniy Bereziv, Kolomea powiat, Austro-Hungary and died in March 1978 at the age of 63.- Films :...
) 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
Culture of Ukraine
Ukrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with...
, and shows Ukrainian cuisine
Ukrainian cuisine
Ukrainian cuisine has significant diversity, historical traditions. "Cuisine - Flavors and Colors of Ukrainian Culture."] . Accessed July 2011. Common foods used include meats, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, berries and herbs...
, 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
Chort
In Slavic mythology , Chort is considered to be a demon of total evil, with horns, hoofs, skinny tail, and a pig-face. He is the son of the Slavic god Chernobog and the goddess Mara. In Ukraine, he is also known as haspyda, didko, irod, and kutsyi. In folklore, his physical appearance is same as...
) 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
Unison
In music, the word unison can be applied in more than one way. In general terms, it may refer to two notes sounding the same pitch, often but not always at the same time; or to the same musical voice being sounded by several voices or instruments together, either at the same pitch or at a distance...
the Nicene Creed
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
(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
Dykanka
Dykanka is a town in Dykanskyi Raion , Poltava Oblast of central Ukraine.The settlement is located from the rail station in Poltava.- History :...
, 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.
Cast
- Ivan MykolaychukIvan MykolaychukIvan Mykolaychuk was a Ukrainian actor, producer, and screen writer.He is best known for playing the Hutsul Ivan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , based on Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky's book of the same name...
- 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 in the episode.
- Volodymyr Hlukhyi - weird man
- Vasyl SymchychVasyl SymchychVasyl Ilich Simchych was a Ukrainian actor.Simchych was born in Seredniy Bereziv, Kolomea powiat, Austro-Hungary and died in March 1978 at the age of 63.- Films :...
- cossack's father - Anatoliy Barchuk - cossack Ivan
- Volodymyr Shakalo - cossack Petro
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 MykolaychukIvan Mykolaychuk
Ivan Mykolaychuk was a Ukrainian actor, producer, and screen writer.He is best known for playing the Hutsul Ivan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , based on Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky's book of the same name...
. 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
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
during the movie festival in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
. All the songs in the movie are contributed by Ivan Mykolaychuk, who also helped Ivan Drach
Ivan Drach
Ivan Drach is a Ukrainian poet, screenwriter, literary critic, politician dissident, and political activist....
in writing the movie's script.
See also
- The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...ChurchThe Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...ChurchThe Lost Letter is the fourth Ukrainian tale in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol.The story is told by an exuberant narrator, the old sexton Foma, who will return with another story, A Bewitched Place, in the next volume...
(1831), by Mykola Hohol. - The Lost LetterThe Lost LetterThe Lost Letter , or A Disappeared Diploma, is a 1945 Soviet animated film directed by the Brumberg sisters and Lamis Bredis. It is the first Soviet cel-animated feature film. It was produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow and is based on the story with the same name by Nikolai...
(1945), a Soviet, Russian-language cartoon filmed in Moscow. - AnnychkaAnnychkaAnnychka is a 1968 Ukrainian drama.The film, which was produced at the Dovzhenko Film Studios, takes place in 1943 and is about a Hutsul girl played by Lyubov Rumyantseva. In 1969 it received a Golden Tower award at the Phnom Penh Film Festival in Cambodia. The director received a special prize at...
(1968), another film by Borys Ivchenko. - Cinema of UkraineCinema of Ukraine-State owned:* Dovzhenko Film Studios * Odessa Film Studio * National Cinematheque of Ukraine * Ukrtelefilm* Yalta Film Studio-Film distribution:...
- Dovzhenko Film Studios