Cossacks & Devils Film Double - Ukrainian Film Week at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi

Thursday 14 May

HOW THE COSSACKS ANIMATIONS: 18:00
Intermission: 18:45
EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA: 19:00
END: 20:10

IMPORTANT: Tickets purchased on this page are for the film double. If you only wish to see one of Thursday's films please visit the relevant ticketing page here.

Volodymyr Dakhno | 1967-1970 | Ukrainian SSR | 1h00m | Presented in the original Ukrainian audio with English subtitles

HOW THE COSSACKS… brings together three classic Ukrainian animated shorts following the cheerful, resourceful and indestructible Cossack trio created by Volodymyr Dakhno. Fast, wordless, physical and wonderfully direct, these films helped turn the Cossacks into some of the most recognisable figures in Ukrainian animation.

This block includes HOW THE COSSACKS COOKED KULESH, HOW THE COSSACKS PLAYED FOOTBALL, and HOW THE COSSACKS FREE THE BRIDES. Across the three films, the Cossacks cook, compete, travel, outwit enemies and generally create trouble with the confidence of men who believe any problem can be solved with speed, appetite and teamwork.

The style is simple but beautifully effective and very distinctly different than the animations I grew up watching in "The West" in Australia. Dakhno uses exaggerated movement, clear silhouettes and comic rhythm rather than heavy dialogue, which gives the films a wide appeal across language and age. They belong to the golden period of Kyivnaukfilm, when Ukrainian animation developed its own visual personality inside the Soviet studio system.

Screening before EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA and THE EVE OF IVAN KUPALO, this animation block opens Thursday’s Cossacks and Devils program with the lightest possible touch: folk humour first, Gogol’s devilry after.

EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA
Aleksandr Rou | 1961 | Soviet Union | 1h09m | Presented in the original Russian audio with English subtitles

EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA turns Nikolai Gogol’s Ukrainian village folklore into a bright, comic winter fantasy full of devils, courtship, mischief and moonlit superstition. Set on Christmas Eve near the village of Dikanka, the film follows the blacksmith Vakula, who will do almost anything to win the affection of the proud and beautiful Oksana.

The problem, naturally, is the devil. Gogol’s world is full of bargains, tricks and strange interruptions from the supernatural, but the tone here stays playful rather than frightening. Rou stages the story as folk spectacle, with painted skies, theatrical sets, village songs, comic villains and a deep affection for the rituals and rhythms of rural life.

The film belongs to a long tradition of Soviet fairy-tale cinema, but its source material is unmistakably Ukrainian. Gogol drew heavily on the language, customs, humour and beliefs of the Ukrainian countryside, turning village life into a place where ordinary human vanity sits very close to the supernatural.

Screening after our HOW THE COSSACKS… animation block, EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA continues Thursday’s Cossacks and Devils program with a lighter kind of folk magic before the night turns stranger with THE EVE OF IVAN KUPALO at 21:00.

FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/