Yuri Chernyshov

Lost film directed by Oleksandr Dovzhenko (his first film) and Favst Lopatynskyi. It is a satire of the NEP period. Vasia, the son of a factory’s worker, is attracted by the romance of adventures. And he goes to look for them. He saves a drowning drunkard who tries to beat him. Vasia escapes from him in a vehicle parked on the shore. However, the vehicle belongs to a superintendent who, when he does not find it, stages its theft. Meanwhile, Vasia exposes priests in the church. As a result, the church is turned into a cinema, and the priest becomes a cinema technician. And finally, Vasia’s last deed is catching a criminal at home and denouncing him to the militia.

The first years of industrialisation. Disguised as a hunter, an ex-White officer Poloz, who is connected to the international intelligence, is hiding in the forest where the construction of a new power station has begun. An intern making photos of the buildings suddenly notices Poloz. Frightened to be exposed, Poloz kills the guy and makes a cut in the base of the scaffolding of the main building of the power station. In face of a failure, counting on his ex-wife Katia’s help, Poloz kidnaps a 10-year-old boy. Hrai, an engineer and the father of the kidnapped boy, finds Poloz’s hiding place in the forest, and his assistant Varrava shoots the White officer at that very moment when he tries to explode the main building of the power station. The film is lost.

The film is based on V. Yurezanskyi’s novel The Missing Village about the struggle of Ukrainian Cossacks for their freedom during the reign of Catherine II. Free Cossacks from the village of Turbai in Poltava region, who were included in registers of Myrhorod Pact, suddenly find out that at the order of Catherine II they become the property of the Ukrainian landlord, pan Bazylevskyi. He treats Cossacks like his usual serfs. Cossacks ask the empress for help, but receive no reply. Then, they rebel and set Bazylevskyi’s estate on fire. The owner and his family die during the fire. The vengeance of the Russian empress is terrible, as dozens of Cossacks are beaten to death, and the village of Turbai is doomed to destruction. The film is lost.