Cinema
Taras Shevchenko
Тарас Шевченко
Pyotr Chardynin · 1926
Synopsis
The poet's life as a series of episodes: the serf child beside his grandfather, the servant of the landowner Engelhardt, the young painter who is bought out of serfdom in St Petersburg with the help of Zhukovsky and the actor Shchepkin, then the poet whose verses displease Tsar Nicholas I. The film follows him into his years as a soldier.
Context
Prepared with specialists in history, ethnography and literature, the film was one of the costliest of its time, shot in Odessa from a screenplay by Mykhailo Panchenko and Dmytro Buzko, with Ambrosiy Buchma in the title role. Presented in Kyiv on 18 October 1926, it was shown with success in Ukraine and abroad; the director and his wife, Marharyta Barska, made a short version of it for children.
Who it is for
About two and a half hours of silent cinema; the Dovzhenko Centre also offers a short edit of it, made in 2013 for schools.
Prizes and reception
The first biographical film devoted to Shevchenko, and the greatest success of Ukrainian cinema in 1926.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.