ukrainian folklore
11 movies and shows
Mavka: The Forest Song
Thu, 02 Mar 2023
Mavka, a Soul of the Forest, faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as Guardian of the Heart of the Forest when she falls for a human, a talented young musician named Lukas.
Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka
Fri, 15 Dec 1961
The story that happened on the farm near Dikanka on the night before Christmas, when the village blacksmith Vakula, having saddled the Devil, brought to his beloved Oksana, the daughter of a rich Cossack Chub, queen's "сherevichki"(the little women shoes) from the capital — St. Petersburg.
My Thoughts Are Silent
Thu, 02 Jan 2020
Twenty-five-year-old Vadym earns a living recording and selling all kinds of different sounds; nevertheless, he’d rather exchange his life in Kyiv for a better future in far-flung Canada. Thus, when he gets a generous job offer which might help him realise his dream, he jumps at the chance; he soon sets off to record the sounds of animals indigenous to Ukraine and also a rare bird native to the Carpathians. The situation proves somewhat more complicated when Vadym’s companion on the trip turns out to be his mother… To the sounds of a synthesized music score, debuting Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich unfolds a visually creative road movie, in which he demonstrates a highly unusual talent for constructing tragicomic situations.
Hutsul Girl Ksenia
Thu, 07 Mar 2019
1939. A young Ukrainian-American man Yaro comes to the Carpathian Mountains, because his father left him a fortune under the condition that he would marry a Ukrainian girl. There Yaro meets a Hutsul girl Ksenya and has to rethink his plan.
The Eve of Ivan Kupalo
Wed, 25 Dec 1968
Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune. Based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Eve of Ivan Kupala” (“St John’s Eve”) and Ukrainian folk tales.
The Enchanted Desna
Mon, 07 Dec 1964
Based on the novel of the same name by Oleksandr Dovzhenko. About the childhood of the famous Ukrainian film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who was born on the ancient lands of Chernihiv, along the banks the Desna. The film consists of two parts. The first is the world shown through the impressions of the six-year-old Sashko. The second is the recollections and reasoning of Sashko, now an elderly colonel who liberates his native village during the war.
Mavka. A Real Myth
Sun, 01 Mar 2026
The Mavka, a mystical and dangerous forest nymph, falls in love with the biologist Lukyan instead of destroying him in the mysterious forest lake, where mermaids and other nymphs await men's souls. And they are ready to do anything to keep the Mavka on the dark side.
The Old Miller's Tale
Thu, 01 Oct 2020
It is evening, children are gathered around the fire, and the old miller begins to tell them a fairy tale. In his tale, Mykola, a bursak, goes to Mr. Adam to teach his daughter Khrystyna to read and write. But on the way to the manor, Mykola learns that the village has been invaded by evil spirits, werewolves, and air-breathers, and that Mr. Adam himself is in captivity. Mykola and Khrystyna decide to free the prisoners and the land from evil spirits, but they will have to go through many trials.
Mamay
Wed, 19 Feb 2003
Mamay draws on traditional Ukranian and Tatar folktales for its Romeo and Juliet-like love story and parable about chivalry and the struggle for freedom. Hundreds of years ago, in the wild steppes of Crimea that form an uneasy border between East and West, Europe and Asia, nomad and farmer, the proud Cossack Mamay falls in love with the Tatar beauty Omai. The title, like the storyline, holds a variety of different meanings taken from different cultures. In Turkic languages, it means "no one," but it was also the name of a famous Mongol conqueror, the great grandson of Ghengis-Khan. In Persian legends, mamay literally means "the spirit of the steppes. "
Pumpkin Walks Around the Garden
Wed, 01 Jan 1997
A humorous story-musical about a pumpkin, the host of a vegetable garden, his wife and many relatives and friends. They all live nearby and often solve some of their living problems. Cucumbers want to play, and the carrot-girls are waiting for worthy suitors. Here there are festivals and folk rituals and the work around which life revolves of vegetable villagers.
When the Trees Fall
Thu, 20 Sep 2018
In the rural Ukraine, in a ghostly world where fantasy tears the veil of reality, life fiercely fights death every day and old values and vengeance reign over people's souls, Vitka, an imaginative and rebellious little girl, is the fascinated witness to the crazy love that Larysa, her teenage cousin, feels for Scar, a young criminal.