As the classic rightly noted, it is customary to treat the diseases of wealthy people with respect. Only a heart transplant can save the dying life of a millionaire Ferfax. In search of a suitable donor for his best client, Dr. Jones makes a series of killings. But he still does not know what reward awaits him for the services rendered ...
Trofim Bessarab has been working as a house painter for all his life. He is a pensioner now and it seems that he can let himself have a rest. But idleness is not for Trofim. His nature is to be a working man and he looks for the way to apply his irrepressible energy, he possesses despite his age.
This film is based on the classic novel of the same name by writer Ivan Franko, one of the most famous figures of Ukrainian literature. It is set during the 1200s and the invasion of the medieval Ukrainian-Russian state of Rus' by Chengis Khan's Golden Horde. Due to its having been produced during the Soviet era, the story's aspect of class-conflict between the "heroic" peasantry and the "decadent" noble particularly emphasized here.
Kaminnyi khrest (Stone Cross, 1968) told the powerful story of a proud farmer who decided to emigrate to Canada during the 1890s. The film captured moments shortly before the farmer set off for his voyage and had to say “good-bye” to his native village, friends and relatives. The internal conflict of the farmer in doubt about his decision became the central focus of the film. Like Vasyl Stefanyk’s novella that inspired it, the film is a meditation on the sense of one’s belonging, the sense of one’s own culture and what it means to abandon it.
