American boy Peter and blind minstrel Ivan are thrown together by fate amidst the turbulent mid-30s Soviet Ukraine.
Cinematography
Sweeping Carpathian vistas that make suffering look almost beautiful.
Score
Jamala's voice haunts like ancestral memory made audible.
Practical Effects
Authentic bandura performances, no fakery—those fingers bleed real.
Director
Oles Sanin
Anton Sviatoslav Greene
Peter Shamrock
Stanislav Boklan
Ivan Kocherga
Jamala
Olha
Jeff Burrell
Michael Shamrock
Oleksandr Kobzar
Comrade Vladimir
Oleh Prymohenov
Mykola Sytnyk
Іryna Sanіna
Orysia
Andrew Franchuk
Harris
Veronika Shostak
Natalka
Eduard Bezrodnyi
Arkadii
Fedir Stryhun
Master Bohdan
Andrii Bilous
Comdiv
Taras Kompanichenko
Bandurist Taras
Taras Denysenko
Folklorist
Borys Heorhiyevskyi
Collective farm chairman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film was Ukraine's 2015 Oscar submission, part of a post-Maidan cultural reclamation project.
Stanislav Boklan learned bandura from scratch; his blistered fingers in close-ups are documentary real.
UA
