“This is an essential companion to recent Ukrainian cinema and post-Soviet historical filmmaking more broadly. Shlikhar’s work is both urgent and enduring. Parallel Realities provides critical context for understanding our acute moment in time, while also making important contributions to the study of post-Soviet cultural memory and the role of the historical film in Russia’s imperial cinematic consciousness. To add to its many strengths, the book is written in a style that is compelling for specialists and students alike, making it an excellent choice for undergraduate courses in post-Soviet culture, cinema, and history.”

— Alyssa DeBlasio, John B. Parsons Chair in the Liberal Arts & Sciences, Dickinson College

“Parallel Realities in Russian and Ukrainian Cinema is an insightful, synoptic, analysis of the use of historical film since 1991 in Russia and Ukraine. Comparing competing cinematic treatments of Kyivan Rus, the Cossack heritage, World War Two, the Soviet era and depictions of Russia’s post 2014 war on Ukraine, Shlikhar shows two contrasting visions of the same historical events (or myths) and alternative visions of society. Whereas Ukrainian film concentrates on trauma and open enquiry, Russia actively promotes top-down monolithic narratives of nostalgia. This is a much-needed corrective to sometimes inadvertently russocentric surveys of post-Soviet film, and boost to Ukrainian film history.”

— Jeremy Hicks, Professor of Post-Soviet Cultural History and Film, Queen Mary University of London

“The long shadow of a memory war haunts Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. One of its most powerful cultural weapons, especially since 1991, has been film. In this insightful and urgent book, Tetiana Shlikhar explores the clashing, discordant visions of the past driving Ukrainian and Russian films after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. What emerges is a striking portrait of Russian cinema advancing the imperialist aims of the state and of Ukrainian cinema plumbing the emotional worlds of the people.

A must-read for anyone striving to understand the deeper roots of the most dangerous conflict in Europe since the Second World War.”

— Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies, University of Cambridge

Tetyana Shlikhar is an Assistant Teaching Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She holds PhDs in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Pittsburgh and in Translation Studies from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. Her research interests include Russian and Ukrainian culture, cinema, and memory studies.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Theoretical Background

Competing Memories

Historical Film and Memory

Russian and Ukrainian Cinema since 1991

The Structure of the Book

Chapter 1. Myths of Ancient Rus

Ancient Rus?

Yuri Kulakov’s Prince Vladimir (2005)

Andrey Kravchuk’s The Viking (2016)

Kyivan Rus?

Volodymyr Denysenko’s Prince Volodymyr: Between Memory and Praise (2022)

Dmitry Korobkin’s Yaroslav. A Thousand Years Ago (2010)

Byliny Epic Tales—Ukrainian or Russian?

Representations of byliny in Recent Russian Animation and Cinema

Dmitry Dyachenko’s The Last Bogatyr (2017)

The Ukrainian Bogatyrs: Yuri Kovalyov’s The Stronghold (2017)

Chapter 2. The Contested Cossack Past

The Cossack Myth in Russian and Ukrainian Cultural Memory

Nikolay Gusarov’s The Cossack Tale (1999)

The Revival of the Cossack Myth in Independent Ukraine

Cossack Films of Post-Soviet Ukraine

The Two Taras Bulbas

Vladimir Bortko’s Taras Bulba (2009)

Petro Pinchuk and Yevhen Bereznyak’s The Song of Taras Bulba (2009)

Controversies Surrounding Hetman Khmelnytsky: Traitor and Unifier of Russia and Ukraine, or Founding Father of the Ukrainian State?

Mykola Mashchenko’s Bohdan-Zinoviy Khmelnytsky (2006)

Valery Yambursky’s Hetman (2015)

Ivan Mazepa: Russian Traitor and Ukrainian Hero

Chapter 3. Memories of the Twentieth Century: Great Patriotic War or Second World War?

The Victory Myth

Andrey Maliukov’s The Match (2012)

Aleksandr Samokhvalov and Boris Rostov’s We Are from the Future 2 (2010)

Fedor Bondarchuk’s Stalingrad (2013)

Kim Druzhinin and Andrey Shalopa’s Panfilov’s 28 Men (2016)

Sergey Mokritsky’s Battle for Sevastopol / The Unbreakable One (2015)

Ukrainian Cinema: The Second World War

Arkady Mykulsky’s Cherry Nights (1992)

Oles Yanchuk’s The Undefeated (2000)

Valery Shalyha’s A Far Shot (2005)

Taras Khymych’s Alive (2016)

Zaza Buadze’s Escape from Stalin’s Death Camp (2017)

Chapter 4. The Soviet Past: Trauma vs. Nostalgia

Oles Yanchuk’s Famine-33 (1991)

Oles Sanin’s The Guide (2014)

Akhtem Seitablayev’s Haytarma (2013)

Akhtem Seitablayev’s 87 Children (2017)

Roman Brovko’s The Censored (2019)

Russian Cinema: Glimpses of Confrontation

Aleksandr Rogozhkin’s The Checkist (1992)

Russian Cinema: Nostalgia for the Soviet Past

Karen Shakhnazarov’s The Vanished Empire (2007)

Nikolay Lebedev’s Legend No. 17 (2013)

Chapter 5. Memory of the Russian War in Ukraine

Ukrainian Cinema since 2014

Moving away from the Soviet Past in Ukraine

Akhtem Seitablayev’s Cyborgs. Heroes Never Die (2017)

Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Atlantis (2019)

Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection (2021)

Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike (2022)

Russian Propaganda Cinema after 2014

Aleksey Pimanov’s Crimea (2017)

Vera Sokolova’s Checkpoint: An Officer’s Story (2021)

Afterword

Bibliography

Filmography

Index