Serhiy Marchenko

Bolshevists aim to set their rules on the lands of the Western Ukraine repeatedly occupied by them. UPA – the partisan army – resists their policy. Civil population becomes a hostage of this war "without rules", and above all – relatives of the insurgents. Invaders and their allies cruelly torture Ukrainian people, but the struggle continues. Irritated, "bolshevists" start evicting people to Siberia. UPA tries to prevent this action, but the forces are not equal... Insurgents can only take revenge and punish the executioners.

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. "