Vadym Skurativskyi

The events of the film take place in the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. It is forbidden to listen to foreign radio stations, it is not safe to voice one’s opinions in front of strangers. Words of truth are spoken only in private kitchens behind the curtained windows. The KGB tap phones, survey the ‘unreliable’ and consistently step by step destroy all forms of decent. The protagonists challenge the inhumane state machine, putting on stake their very lives and proving that nothing and nobody can stop a person who is on his way to achieve a true freedom.

Based on Wolfgang Goethe's poem "Forest King". Farewell to children's dreams about the perfection of the world and the permanence of nature. The film has three main characters: the boy Oleksii and his parents, Andriy and Oleksandra. And someone Maxim, the king of the forest, the wind is the subject of secret admiration and fear of Oleksiy: "My dear, the king of the forest is talking to me: he promises gold, pearls and joy" - "Oh no, my baby, you didn't hear that: that wind, waking up, the leaves swayed."

The mice people live in an enormous theatre, expectantly awaiting the ambiguous show by Josefina.

It turns out that Andrei Tarkovsky’s great-grandfather and Ivan Tobilevych (Karpenko-Karyi) have family ties. In this film, Vadym Skurativskyi, a curious Ukrainian cultural historian, recounts this unexpected phenomenon, taking us to the tailend of the 19th century. Sergii Masloboishchykov recreates photographs of relatives and imposes them with the films of Tarkovsky.