Theater and film actor, Mykola Veresen' dies on the set while performing the role of Ivan the Terrible. In the moment of death, his karma transforms into the bloody murderer he embodied, and he falls into Sheol, a common grave for all the dead. The time has a different flow here, the only feelings left are fear and pain. In hell Mykola learns about the confrontation that last for centuries between the white and black vampires, he becomes a puppet in the cruel guerrilla of these two supernatural groups.
Set amidst stunning Ukrainian winter landscapes, vanishing villages and emerging feeling of alienation between people in a post-Soviet society, Stepne is a story of a mature man who comes back home from the city to take care of his dying mother. The mother’s passing, together with a meeting with his brother and a woman he loves make him reflect on the life he’s had and choices he’s made along the way. And then, just before her death, the mother tells Anatolii about a treasure she has buried inside the shed…
Set amidst stunning Ukrainian winter landscapes, vanishing villages and emerging feeling of alienation between people in a post-Soviet society, Stepne is a story of a mature man who comes back home from the city to take care of his dying mother. The mother’s passing, together with a meeting with his brother and a woman he loves make him reflect on the life he’s had and choices he’s made along the way. And then, just before her death, the mother tells Anatolii about a treasure she has buried inside the shed…
How to repay parental debt on the other side of the front line? Why would a doctor kill and when to believe the enemy? How is the war in eastern Ukraine different from any other war in the world? A war drama about the stories of two families, where adult men took up arms and thus crossed their destinies.
In the interweaving of five stories, the New Year's magician himself ceases to believe in miracles, because burdened with life and immersed in work, people completely forget about the holiday. He takes serious action and sells his suit to a simple guy who has long since lost his sense of "New Year's magic". By leaving his position as a magician, Santa deprives people not only of a festive mood, but also of snow that could contribute to this. But contrary to his views on the hopelessness of the modern generation, people notice the changes and become the creators of a real New Year's miracle on their own.
An honest and just judge, despite attempts at bribery and threats, dares to pass a fair sentence, and face with dire consequences.
There is a ballad written by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko called “That Catherine's hut is on the hill...". It is about a rescue of Catherine's lover, whom she saves by posing him as her brother. This story, as a parable, flies throughout Ukraine's history and reconstructs its dramatic and heroic episodes. Every challenge, including the Chernobyl accident, leaves Catherine without her home. But she is stubborn, as many generations of Ukrainians, in rebuilding her house out of pieces. The story is not only about Catherine's redemption, but also about Ukraine's survival throughout the centuries that is reflected in a folk tradition called Toloka.
Oleg Primogenov is a Soviet and Ukrainian film and theater actor. Born in the Ukrainian SSR, in the city of Lvov. The future actor spent part of his childhood with his family in the Belarusian city of Gomel. Returning to the Ukrainian SSR, Primogenov graduated from high school, but for a long time he could not decide on his future profession. For some time he worked in the circus, changed several working specialties. After that he became a student of KNUTKiT named after Ivan Karpenko-Karyy. After graduating from the university, he got a job in the troupe of the Ivano-Frankovsk Theater, on the stage of which the first serious roles of Oleg Primogenov were played. He made his film debut in 1989, playing a small role in the Soviet film Inoy (1989). He began to actively act in films already in the 1990s, appearing in such projects as Doloy styd! (1994), Operatsyya 'Kontrakt' (1996), Dve luny, tri solntsa (1998). He also often appears in TV series. During his career, the actor has played more than a hundred film roles. He continues to actively act in film, in parallel he collaborates with the Kiev theater 'Koleso'.