In 1950, long after the world has finished fighting World War II, a fight continues behind the newly drawn Iron Curtain: as the Ukrainians keep fighting both Nazi and Soviet abuses, General Roman Shukhevych (Hryhoriy Hladiy) is forced by brutal circumstances and his own sense of honor and duty to lead this effort as an underground war. As portrayed by the film, Shukhevych is a genteel family man who is also a complex character (revolted by ethnic discrimination, a music lover and a military genius) that with his charisma fuels his countrymen with desire for freedom. In the end, Shukhevych's efforts are unable to defeat the Soviets despite paying for his resistance with his life, but they re-enforce Ukrainian patriotism as an underground force until Ukraine finally recovers its freedom from Soviet tyranny.
Bolshevists aim to set their rules on the lands of the Western Ukraine repeatedly occupied by them. UPA – the partisan army – resists their policy. Civil population becomes a hostage of this war "without rules", and above all – relatives of the insurgents. Invaders and their allies cruelly torture Ukrainian people, but the struggle continues. Irritated, "bolshevists" start evicting people to Siberia. UPA tries to prevent this action, but the forces are not equal... Insurgents can only take revenge and punish the executioners.
End of the 1930s. The times of Stalin's terror. Lieutenant Scherbakov got the order to shoot several "enemies of the people". Unexpectedly, a rural wedding found itself at the crime scene. Pursuant to the instruction, witnesses were also eliminated...
The Hitlerian army has merely encroached upon the territory of Ukraine, and the majority of the local people have been already ready to cave in to a new regime. The Ukrainian policemen have killed the boy. It is clear that there is no hope to expect the justice from the invaders, that’s why the killed boy’s mother declares the war on the hangsman.
It is a screen adaption of the cognominal short story of Olha Kobylianska in which the struggle of the educated women with the bourgeois manners is described. Three girls from one family are very interested in the art and are going to devote a lifetime to it. But it is the beginning of the 20th century with all peculiar to that time disadvantages, and the way to the success is bestrewed with the difficulties.
The film takes place in late 1941 in Transcarpathia. Soviet paratroopers landed on the territory occupied by the Hortists. Of the six, only Olexa Borkanyuk manages to bypass the ambush. However, the Nazis, taking local people hostage, threaten to punish them if he doesn't voluntarily surrender. For the sake of saving the lives of people, Olexa goes to the camp of the enemy. The film is based on real facts from the life of the writer and journalist, Hero of the Soviet Union Olexa Borkanyuk.
The film is a poetic adaptation of a series of stories (oral and written) about Princess Olha of Kyivan Rus' (Ukraine-Rusʹ) at the start of the 11th century. Inspired by chronicles and folk legends this is a story of a common girl Olha who married Prince Ihor and became his successor on the throne after his murder and one of the most remarkable political leaders in early medieval European history. She converted to Christianity and brought her realm into Europe.