Eleonora Summovska

Slow life in a small seaside town N is suddenly disturbed by a local scandal around a man who has recently passed away. Only his wife and his friend know where he was buried, and they refuse to tell the others, seemingly in accordance to his last will. Each character seeks answers to the questions of their own, but they are searching on the outside, inquiring society and each other, so their efforts are futile. Something is about to happen.

'A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa' unfolds during an interesting era in the history of Eastern Europe when Russia, under Peter the Great, and Sweden, under King Charles XII, struggled for power; the Ukraine was the pawn in the middle. In 1709, Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire, signed a pact with the Swedish king promising to support Sweden in its war against Russia provided that the Ukraine was given its independence.

The mice people live in an enormous theatre, expectantly awaiting the ambiguous show by Josefina.

The action is set at the start of the twentieth century, between a village by the River Dnyepr and the coast of Florida. While the story has ironic, romantic and sometimes mystic angles, the bitter aspects of emigration from the Ukraine to the United States become clearly visible.

A convict is forced to hide within a model of a hammer and sickle. Here a tragic romance ensues between the convict and woman worker; which is spoilt by the woman's jealous young son. The convict is then forced to undergo a tragic bid for freedom which ends with the beauty of swans contrasted with the imprisoned convicts and the hopeful but ultimately tragic wait by the woman for her lover.

A strange combination of circumstances leads the forty-year-old engineer Igor into the hall of the old cinema, where the film session has already begun. The main character of the picture is the poet Belov, the same romantic loser, disappointed in himself and in everything - surprisingly similar to him. Moreover, Igor soon realizes that he is looking from the side at his own life. What is happening on the screen becomes a shock and revelation for him. In the dark hall of the mysterious cinema, fate gives Igor the only chance to start all over again.

A lonely woman, who is desperately tired of her lonesome, posts a message that she wishes to meet someone. A man answers this message, who seems to have nothing in common with the woman. But...

The young energetic Lyudmila Petrovna Nikitina, who worked as a milkmaid on the farm, decided to radically change her life. Settling the head of a rural furniture store, she sold a cow, pigs, sheep, and even invited the sons of a music teacher from the city, violinist Valerian Sergeyevich, to her sons. Her husband Theodosius, a collective farm carpenter, is not able to reason with his wife, but at the same time he does not intend to put up with the new order. To Lyudmila Petrovna’s surprise, the music teacher, who had a taste for village life, also fell under the influence of Theodosius. Once, having seized children, the men fled home. With difficulty, Lyudmila Petrovna was able to restore the broken family peace, and the wife of Valerian Sergeyevich to return his husband home.

A young boy tries to earn some money by "renting" his dog to the film studio.

Based on the works of Nikolai Gogol - 'The Old World Landowners', 'The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich', 'Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt'.

The film is based on the stories Anton Chekhov. It is a tribute to the actor Boris Andreyev. He plays a major role that keeps up for the duration of the film. Lively and intelligent Valery Spout largely mitigates underline the drama of the protagonist, while Michael Sveta's role, though small, is bright and memorable.