We invite you to a free screening of the film “Kuban Cossacks. And it’s already two hundred years…” with the participation of the director
“…We travelled around the villages. In the old days, they were called kurin in the Zaporizhzhian way. We walked from house to house, from yard to yard… We never left the feeling that we were at home, everything there reminded us of Ukraine. Everything!” That is how the authors of the film “Kuban Cossacks. And already two hundred years…” their stay in the Kuban in the early 90s of the last century.
The film was created in 1992 for the 200th anniversary of the first resettlement of the Zaporozhzhians on the land of modern Kuban. “It is dedicated to the first Zaporizhzhians who landed on Taman on August 25, 1792,” the dedication to the film says.
With the arrival of the Soviets, life in the Ukrainian Kuban is changing. Here, Ukrainians will go through all the trials that Ukraine itself has undergone: Soviet occupation, dekulakization, Holodomor, repression, forced deportations and assimilation.
The Holodomor Museum invites everyone to watch this documentary together (director Valentyn Sperkach, cinematographer Serhii Lysetskyi, voice-over by Bohdan Stupka. Filmed by the “Ukraine Studio” association).
During the screening, there will also be a discussion with the participation of the director of the film Valentyn Sperkach and the head of the Holodomor and mass man-made famines research department of our Museum, a researcher of Kuban history, Professor Dmytro Bilyi.
From the documentary, you will learn about how customs and language were taken from Ukrainians in the Kuban, how surnames were rewritten, how Ukrainian identity was destroyed, and how the backbone of the Cossacks was broken. This is a film about how Kuban Ukrainians were made into werewolves and “Russians”. But even after such a devastating assimilation there in the early 90s, one could still hear the Ukrainian language, and song, and feel the indestructible spirit of the devastated people.
This film was and is banned for screening in the Kuban. And from the film director, you will learn what remained “behind the scenes”.
We are waiting for you on June 24 at 3:00 pm at the Holodomor Museum (Kyiv, 3 Lavrska St.).
The show is free!
Journalists will be able to receive comments from the director and our scholars.
Since the number of seats is limited, please register: