08/21/2002 | Serhiy Hrysch

Obviously drafted by a Russian...


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A Prayer For Hetman Mazepa
Molitva Za Getmana Mazepu
(Ukraine)

A Vision XXI Media Group √ Alexander Dovzhenko National Filmstudio production. (International sales: Rodovid Producing Center, Kiev.) Produced by Igor Didkovsky. Directed, written by Yuri Ilyenko.

Hetman Mazepa - Bohdan Stupka
Ljubov Kocubej - Ludmilla Efimenko
King Charles XII - Nikita Dzygurda
Tsar Peter I - Vacleslav Dovzhenko
General Kocubej - Viktor Demertas
Motrja Kocubej - Katia Lisovenko
Young Mazepa - Filip Ilyenko
Older Mazepa - Sergei Marcenko


By DAVID STRATTON


This lavishly produced historical epic about Ukrainian hero Hetman (or "leader") Mazepa, who in the early 18th century briefly secured his country's independence from rivals Russia and Sweden, is a willfully chaotic picture. Its merits, such as they are, lie in its very craziness, certainly not in its utterly confusing way of telling a story which, presumably, is familiar to Ukrainian audiences. The latest film from Yuri Ilyenko, one of the most colorful figures of the long-gone Soviet cinema, is at best a curiosity, but on that level alone it could find further exposure at festivals willing to take a chance on a very wild ride.
Ilyenko is still probably best known in the West for his camerawork on Sergei Paradzhanov's "Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors" (1964), though he photographed and directed interesting films in the late '60s and early '70s, many of them banned by the Soviet authorities. Though reasonably active in recent years, the director's films of the '90s have rarely been seen.

"A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa" unfolds during an interesting era in the history of Eastern Europe when Russia, under Peter the Great (Vacleslav Dovzhenko), and Sweden, under King Charles XII (Nikita Dzygurda), struggled for power; the Ukraine was the pawn in the middle.

In 1709, Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire, signed a pact with the Swedish king promisingto support Sweden in its war against Russia provided that the Ukraine was given its independence. For a brief period this independence was, indeed, granted,but then Russia defeated Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, and Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire again and, eventually, of the Soviet Union.

Despite the obvious resources at his disposal, Ilyenko has chosen not to tell this story in any kind of coherent way, instead opting for an extremely stylized approach reminiscent, at its best, of Paradzhanov and at its worst (which is most of the time) characterized by an almost amateurish disregard for audience sensibilities.

The story is not told chronologically, but in bits and pieces through the feverish dreams of Mazepa, who sees himself at three periods of his life. Settings are deliberately artificial, and a lengthy battle sequence in the middle of the film uses copious amounts of obviously fake blood and plaster corpses.

The freewheeling camera, operated by the director himself, never stays still for a moment, sweeping over the characters and action in dizzying fashion. The color grading varies wildly almost from shot to shot, from a very washed-out look to more normal color shadings.

The acting is all over the place as well, with most of the cast encouraged to overplay to an annoying extent. There's a lot of declamatory speechifying and shouting over the din, all of it rather badly post-synchronized. Nudity abounds, and a climactic orgy sequence, which again seems to have no apparent purpose, is endlessly long.

Yet there are moments of strange beauty in the midst of all the cacophony, and the story, whenever sense can be made of it, is an intriguing one. Ilyenko, who is seen with his camera and crew in one sequence, has always been a maverick director, which is why his work was disliked by the Soviets. But his indigestible style here dooms what could have been an impressive saga; pic will likely receive the most marginal international exposure.

Camera (color), Ilyenko; editor, Eleonora Sumovska; music, Virko Balej; production designer, Sergei Yakutovic; costume designer, Volodimir Knyasev; sound, Valentina Fontalina. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Official Section), Feb. 15, 2002. Running time: 152 MIN.





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Date in print: Sun., Apr. 14, 2002