User:Anastasiia Chasovskykh/Babylon XX

Babylon XX is a Ukrainian Soviet feature film directed by Ivan Mykolaichuk. It was filmed at The Dovzhenko Film Studios in 1979. The movie was filmed in the village of Vytachiv, Obukhivskyi district, Kyiv region. about the first steps of collectivization in the Ukrainian village.It is based on the novel by Vasyl Zemliak The Swan flock, where he described the first steps of collectivisation in the Ukrainian village.

It ranks 10th in the list Top 100 best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.

Plot
A former sailor Synytsia comes to the village of Babylon to organize a commune. He sees that after the overthrow of tsarizm the village has hardly changed. There are even grotesque sculptures of the king, queen and their son. Synytsia blows up sculptures with grenades.

The local undertaker and philosopher Fabian then returns to Babylon. He belives, it is not the path itself that is important, but how you go through it. Brothers Danko and Lukian are thinking of getting married, but they must take care of their old mother. They hire the orphan Dasha to help with the housework. Soon, Dasha witnesses how rich Bubela is, and fearing that the Bolsheviks will take away his property, collects weapons to kill Klym Synytsia. She tells the brothers about it.

Danko flirts with Malva, inciting her to leave her sick husband Andriian. Andriian passed away soon, but Malva falls in love with Fabian. However, he does not want a relationship for fear of losing his mind. Malva comes to Synytsia in the former manor to join the commune, but Synytsia does not want to accept her, considering Malva is unreliable. The Communard sends her back accompanied by the poet Yavorskyi, although Malva is determined to be in the commune. Seeing her in the company of the poet, Danko is jealous and plans revenge.

Danko and Lukian's mother soon passed away, but it turns out she had a treasure buried under a pear tree. The peasants leave the harvest to bury the deceased, and Fabian digs a grave. After the funeral, the brothers set out to find the treasure and dig up a chest with Kozak weapons, but do not realize its value. Malva continues to meet with Yavorskyi, but he is pursued by kulaks under the leadership of Bubela and shot. However, Malva is already pregnant with his kid.

Bubela comes to Fabian and orders a coffin for himself just in case. On the night of Epiphany, other kulaks and he come to the Communards and seize them. Danko sided with the kulaks, while Lukian joined the Communards. Bubela persuades the peasants to revolt, while Fabian tries to prevent bloodshed. Despite his words, a fight begins and the kulaks flee. Taking the opportunity, Danko shoots Malva, but hits Fabian.

Genre
Artistic council of The Dovzhenko Film Studios noted : The genre of the film reaches the sources of folk tales, to the traditions of romantic-poetic folk fables, which combines the absolute psychological realism of folk characters and free conventionality of forms. <...> At the heart of the compositional organization of the material there is the principle of poetic, musical construction, related to the symphonic work, which combines nostalgic, comedic, lyrical and dramatic parts. In the middle of the organic combination of them there is the image of Fabian. The authors themselves describe the genre as "a folk-romantic fable". The events in our film are separated from us by a short period of time — it is only half a century. However, if you think about how much has happened in these fifty years, how the fate of my people, their psychology, and life has changed, it turns out that this film is about his very distant childhood, about what is always beautiful and unforgettable. Quite a colorful mosaic of vivid sketches of life, scenes of people's lives is combined with the image of Fabian, who is like the only core that connects everyone and gives a moral assessment of people, and their actions. This person is the man of the folk, a sage, and a philosopher. The meaning of his life is to see and understand what is happening. And he eventually succeeds.

Cast

 * Ivan Mykolaichuk — Fabian
 * Liubov Polishchuk — Malva
 * Les Serdiuk — Danko
 * Yaroslav Havryliuk — Lukian
 * Taisiia Lytvynenko — Prisia
 * Boryslav Brondukov — Yavtushok
 * Liudmyla Chynsheva — Darynka
 * Anatolii Khostikoiev — poet Volodia Yarovskyi
 * Ivan Havryliuk — Synytsia
 * Vitalii Rozstalnyi — Ruban
 * Kostiantyn Stepankov — rich man Bubela
 * Olha Mateshko — Parfena
 * Volodymyr Volkov — ''Radenkii, one of the brothers
 * Valentyn Hrudynin — ''Radenkii, one of the brothers
 * Raiisa Nedashkivska — Ruzia
 * Borys Ivchenko — Monk

In episodes
Hennadii Bolotov, Borys Aleksandrov, Kostiantyn Artemenko, Volodymyr Berezhnytskyi, Varvara Masliuchenko (mother), V. Hubenko, N. Holubov, N. Horobets, Stepan Donets, Mykhailo Kramar, Liudmyla Kuzmina, Dmytro Myrhorodskyi, Viktor Panchenko, Fedir Stryhun, V. Cherkes, Volodymyr Shakalo, Mykola Shutko (Panko)

Film crew

 * Screenwriters: Vasyl Zemliak, Ivan Mykolaichuk
 * Producer: Ivan Mykolaichuk
 * Director of photography: Yurii Harmash
 * Stage artist: Anatolii Mamontov
 * Director: Yaroslav Lanchak
 * Operators: A. Riazantsev, Yu. Yurovskyi
 * Cutter: Nataliia Akaiomova
 * Film editor: Tetiana Kovtun
 * Sound engineer: Tetiana Bondarchuk
 * Costume designer: Alla Sapanovych
 * Makeup artist: Halyna Tyshlek
 * Musical arrangement Ivan Mykolaichuk
 * Folk melodies — performed by troisti muzyky, sing Mykola Sulak
 * Combined operator: Mykola Shabaiev
 * Decorator: V. Beskrovnyi
 * Artist-photographer: H. Nоrskyi
 * Lighting designer: V. Nadtochii
 * Film directors: Halyna Serdiuk, Volodymyr Smertiuk

Awards

 * 1979 — The main prize of the Kyiv International Film Festival «Molodist» (Kyiv)
 * 1980 — The All-Union Film Festival in Dushanbe: Prize for the best director — Ivan Mykolaichuk

Cultural impact

 * The album Fires of the City of Babylon by the group Tanok na Maidani Kongo  was named under the influence of the film.