A Story of the Forest: Mavka( 1980)

TV-MADramaFantasyRomance

61%

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Overview

Mavka, a water nymph, loves Lukash, a country youth. Their brief happiness ends when Lukash is forced to marry the shrewish Kilina. The Spirit of the Forest turns Lukash into a wolf as punishment for his infidelity. The strength of Mavka's love breaks the spell, but Kilina curses the nymph, transforming her into a weeping willow. This beautiful and tragic story is based on a play written in 1912 by Lesya Ukrainka, a Ukrainian poet, writer and political, civil and female activist, and includes mythological characters taken from Ukrainian folklore.

Top Billed Cast

Liudmyla Yefymenko
Mavka
Viktor Kremlev
Lukash
Maya Bulgakova
Lukash’s Mother
Ivan Mykolaichuk
Uncle Leo / Wood Goblin
Boris Khmelnitsky
Red (forest) Demon
Viktor Demertash
Koots
Lyudmyla Lobza
Kylyna
Nina Shatskaya
Water Sprite
Svetlana Sergeyeva
Meadow Fairy
Ivan Khodulin
Kylyna’s child
Pylyp Illienko
Kylyna’s child
Vladimir Fyodorov
Hunger Imps

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A review by SGhosh

Written by SGhosh on Mon Feb 10 2014

It seems that I have stumbled on one of Yuri Ilyenko’s masterpieces at last, a beautiful and tragic adaptation of a play (written in 1912) based around folklore. Mavka, a water nymph is enticed by a young man’s flute and falls in love with him, only to be betrayed as the man marries another. The forest spirit turns the man into a werewolf for his betrayal, but Mavka’s devotion breaks the spell even as the man’s wife curses Mavka. A fantasy from the priceless vaults of Cinema from USSR, this is a gorgeous film, and the use of color (as it was talked about a few posts back) is especially brillian...