The Undefeated (2000 film)
| The Undefeated | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Oles Yanchuk |
| Produced by | Oles Yanchuk |
| Written by | Vasyl Portiak |
| Music by | Volodymyr Hronsky |
| Cinematography |
Oleksiy Zolotarov Vitaliy Zymovets |
| Distributed by | Dovzhenko Film Studios |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | Ukraine |
| Language | Ukrainian |
| Budget | $1 million |
The Undefeated (Ukrainian: Нескорений, Neskorenyi) is a 2000 Ukrainian film by Oles Yanchuk, a producer and director previously praised by the New York Times and Time Magazine for his film Famine-33.
Plot
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.
Cast
- Hryhoriy Hladiy — Roman Shukhevych
- Viktoriya Malektorovych — Halyna Dydyk
- Serhiy Romaniuk — Soloviov
- Viktor Stepanov — major NKVD
- Svitlana Vatamaniuk — Natalka Shukhevych
- Dmytro Myrhorodskyi — Yosyp Shukhevych
- Volodymyr Horianskyi — agent Pashkevych
- Yaroslav Muka — Stepan Bandera
and others
Production notes
The Undefeated was filmed at the "Studio Oles-film" with the monetary assistance from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), with the National Cinema Studio of feature films named after O. Dovzhenko. The film's chief advisor was Ukrainian American specialist Askold Lozynsky. It was filmed on location in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, and such remarkable cities of Ukraine as Odessa, Kyiv and Lviv,