This screening is part of Ukranian Retrospective, an educational program dedicated to Ukrainian cinema history in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute London and Dovzhenko Center.
Young peasant Petro falls in love with the daughter of his master, but her father refuses to let his daughter marry a laborer. The greiving Peter meets the diabolical Basavruk in a pub. Basavruk offers Peter a strange proposal that would help the boy acquire a beautiful wife.
Based on a story of the Nikolai Gogol, director Yuri Illenko hides an allegorical history of Ukraine, from the Cossack and Tatar raids to Potemkin settlements and pilgrimages to Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, behind this Ukrainian Faust. However, The Eve of Ivan Kupalo was ultimately banned by soviet censorship, like Illenko's previous work – The Well for the Thirsty.
Cast:
Larysa Kadochnykova, Boris Khmelnitsky, Oleksandr Sergienko