This event is part of Ukrainian Retrospective, an educational program dedicated to Ukrainian cinema history in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute London and Dovzhenko Center.
The screening will be be preceded by a pre-recorded introduction from Yuliia Kovalenko, film critic, program director Docudays UA.
In a desperate attempt to get his family out of abject poverty, a Galician peasant called Ivan Didukh decides to leave his ancestral home and seek a better life in Canada. On the eve of his departure, a thief is caught in his house. As tradition dictates, Ivan calls on his neighbors to sit in judgment of the criminal.
Inspired by stories of the Ukrainian writer Vasyl Stefanyk (1871-1936), this film is Ukrainian poetic cinema at its best – outwardly terse and laconic, but intensely psychological and shattering in the understated delivery of its message. Today The Stone Cross remains little known and even less appreciated both in and outside Ukraine. A true gem of world cinema, it represents the peak of Ukrainian filmmaking.
Cast:
Danylo Ilchenko, Kateryna Mateyko, Boryslav Brondukov