Povodyr

Who really knows about the fate of the
Ukrainian kobzars, the bards who sang about
the Cossack soul whilst playing on multistringed
bandura? Oles Sanin’s technically impressive
national epic speaks of the bandurists‘
resistance to Soviet repression in the early
thirties. To this end he sends a young orphan
and a blind kobzar on the run from Stalin‘s
henchmen, where they endure hunger, violence
and a growing sense of patriotism. The fi lm‘s
production having in fact started a few years
back, it has acquired a substantial patriotic
flavour given the current political situation in
the Ukraine.