Gunpowder's gone, the Sich is doomed, and these Cossacks are NOT having it.
Ukraine. The end of the XV century. All gunpowder made in factories suddenly disappears. The company of cossacks led by Maksym Trytuz comes together to find one of the transports that carries gunpowder to the Zaporozhian Sich.
Production
Jaw-dropping practical steppe landscapes shot on location
Costume
Painstakingly authentic Cossack kit that reeks of research
Director
Serhiy Omelchuk
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Ukraine's final Soviet years, the film's obsession with Sich autonomy plays like coded nationalism — Cossacks as proto-Ukrainian resistance before that was officially speakable.
Director Omelchuk allegedly fired his original cinematographer mid-shoot after a dispute over whether to shoot 'like Kurosawa' or 'like Tarkovsky' — the compromise is visually visible.
SU
