Famine-33

Famine-33
Голод-33
Famine-33; Голод-33
	Film poster
Directed by	Oles Yanchuk
Written by	Serhiy Dyachenko; Les Taniuk
Produced by	Oleksiy Chernishov
Cinematography	Vasyl Borodin; Mykhailo Kretov
Music by	Viktor Patsukevych; Mykola Kolondionok
Distributed by	Dovzhenko Film Studios
Release dates	1991 (Ukraine, Soviet Union)
Running time	90 minutes
Language	Ukrainian

Famine-33 (Ukrainian: Голод-33, Holod-33) is a 1991 drama film by Oles Yanchuk about the Holodomor famine in Ukraine, and based on the novel The Yellow Prince by Vasyl Barka. The film is told through the lives of the Katrannyk family of six. The film was made on a voluntary basis. The main producer of the film was the Transcarpathian bank "Lisbank", which was to receive a share of rental income. However, after watching the finished film, the producers were so moved that they decided to refuse to return the money, and insisted that as many people as possible see the film.^[1]

Synopsis[edit]

"In an early scene, the members of an impoverished farming family solemnly take turns dipping their ladles into the single bowl of watery soup that is their only meal of the day. Later in the film, scores of villagers numb with despair and hunger huddle silently in the pouring rain outside a Government office until a truckload of armed soldiers arrives to disperse them. In the most poignant scene, a little boy who has lost his parents calls for his mother as he wanders, panic-stricken, through a snowy woodland where the trees are outnumbered by crosses marking the dead."^[2]

Cast[edit]

Halyna Sulyma as Dariya Katrannyk
Heorhiy Moroziuk as Myron Katrannyk
Oleksiy Horbunov as Bilshovyk
Maksym Koval
Olenka Kovtun
Kostyantyn Kazymirenko
Neonila Svitlychna
Leonid Yanovsky
Petro Beniuk
Leo Okrent — episode
Oleh Isayev
Tetiana Slobidska
Svetlana Romashko
Larysa Kadyrova
Alidzhan Soluyan
Ivan Bondar — an episode
С. Gordienko — episode
Oleksandr Dubovych — episode
Yuriy Dubrovin — episode
Maksym Kondratiuk — episode
Natalia Kononova — episode
Myroslav Makoviychuk — episode
Ihor Slobidskyi — episode
Olena Yanchuk — episode

Awards[edit]

1991 — 1st All-Ukrainian Film Festival in Kyiv — Main Prize.

2009 — the main prize of the Vincennes Film Festival — the Henri Langlois Prize.

Facts[edit]

The film was made on a voluntary basis. The main producer of the film was the Transcarpathian bank Lisbank, which was supposed to receive a share of the profits from the distribution. However, after watching the finished film, the producers were so moved that they decided to refuse to return the money and insisted that as many people as possible see the film.

The film was broadcast on television on the UT-1 channel on the eve of the All-Ukrainian referendum on December 1, 1991, which resulted in Ukraine's independence.^[3]

The voice-over at the end of the film "Children, it's the last hour! For you have heard that the antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have arisen... They came out of us, but they did not belong to us" - a quote from the Bible (John 2:18-19)