Directed by Borys Ivchenko • 1972 • USSR/Ukraine

Borys Ivchenko’s fittingly surreal adaptation of an 1832 short story by Mykola Hohol, otherwise known as Nikolai Gogol, stars the irrepressible Ivan Mykolaichuk as a Zaporizhian Cossack and is full to bursting with the author’s trademark devils, comic digressions, and bawdy folk humour. Adapted by writer Ivan Drach, the story follows two Cossacks, Vasyl (Mykolaichuk) and Andrii (Fedir Strihun), on a mission to deliver a secret document to the tsarina in the distant imperial capital of St Petersburg. Released at the tail end of the so-called “poetic cinema” movement in Ukraine, the film was denied a release by Soviet censors, but still stands as one of the first attempts to put Ukrainian Cossack identity on screen, in lurid, musical-fantasy form.

THE LOST LETTER • ПРОПАЛА ГРАМОТА
Directed by Borys Ivchenko
Written by Ivan Drach
From the story by Nikolai Gogol
Cinematography by Vitalii Zymovets
Traditional music compiled by Ivan Mykolaichuk
Starring: Ivan Mykolaichuk, Zemfira Tsakhilova, Fedir Strihun

In Ukrainian with English subtitles