Dovzhenko Film: The Lost Letter (1972) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Dovzhenko Film Studios

In 1965, Ukrainian actor Ivan Mykolaichuk found himself catapulted to superstardom with the leading role and release of Sergei Parajanov’s enduring dose of Ukrainian magical realism with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.  Considered the landmark and pinnacle of Ukrainian cinema and an important monument of magical realist cinema spoken of the same breath as Aleksandr Ptushko or Rou, the film while proving problematic for its director targeted by Soviet censors ushered in Mykolaichuk as an icon of Ukrainian cinema and in particular the folklore subgenre.  Keeping busy in screen roles including composing the soundtrack for the documentary Kyiv Melodies, Mykolaichuk crossed paths with Ukrainian film director Borys Ivchenko who himself was on his third feature with the Russian drama Olesya when the two decided on collaborating on an adaptation of The Lost Letter in 1972.

 
Based on the fourth Ukrainian novella The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N…Church derived from Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol’s 1982 collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (also adapted into several Soviet films over the years), this musical tragicomedy film concerns Cossack Vasyl (Ivan Mykolaichuk) who is carrying to Peterberg a hramota or sealed official document supplied by the hetman through his secretary rumored to cost ten poods of gold.  Sewing the hramota into Vasyl’s hat before being given magical tobacco to ward off evil, his wife and father send him off to find a co-journeyman, paving the way for a showcase of Ukrainian culture including but not limited to cuisines, costumes and musical traditions.  All the while fending off unexpected obstacles such as an evil servant, he joins forces with a Zaporozhian Cossack named Andriy (Fedir Stryhun) on their sojourn to deliver the hramota to the empress of St. Petersburg.

 
A similarly tragic yet culturally significant pearl of Ukrainian cinema equidistant to its predecessor Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors in terms of being both a narrative piece of cinema and a showcase for Ukrainian culture, Пропала грамота or The Lost Letter became equally iconic for being banned outright by Soviet censors and it wasn’t seen until the fall of the Union.  Originally intended to be directed by Viktor Hres starring Anatoly Papanov before unexpected illness replaced him with Borys Ivchenko, a key factor in the film’s eventual success and endurance coming from the same studio behind Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors was the contribution of music and original songs by its leading actor Ivan Mykolaichuk.  Undoubtedly the signature face and voice of Ukrainian cinema, in this instance the soundtrack is a mixture of Ukrainian folklore music and original arrangements by Mykolaichuk, making this his most fully involved endeavor yet, all of which is captured beautifully in academy ratio by Vitaliy Zymovets.


Though banned by the Soviets outright after inception, the film nevertheless amassed cult status in Ukraine thanks to the Bureau of Soviet Cinematography Propaganda in Moscow which published fifty thousand pamphlets of images of Mykolaichuk in the lead role of Cossack Vasyl sometime in 1973.  Eventually after the film’s release, it was canonized by the Dovzhenko Center as number twelve in the top 100 best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.  A unique mixture of Nikolai Gogol, Mykolaichuk’s iconic screen presence as a signature Cossack and a testament to Borys Ivchenko’s own contribution to Ukrainian cinema, The Lost Letter is an important piece of Eastern European and world cinema that against all odds and obstacles prevailed as a unicorn of the country’s filmmaking output.  Now if only Deaf Crocodile Films or Criterion could do this one up in a proper domestic re-release…

--Andrew Kotwicki