Enchanted Desna
Začarovanaja Desna
Očarljiva Desna
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Based on Oleksandr Dovzhenko's novel of the same name, the film blends the main protagonist Alexander's childhood dreams with national mythmaking and personal biography.

The celebrated Ukrainian film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko was born on the ancient lands of Chernihiv, along the banks of the Desna River. A screen adaptation of his novel, the film consists of two parts. The first shows the world as seen through the impressions of the six-year-old Sashko. The second traces the recollections and reflections of Sashko as an elderly colonel who liberates his native village during the war.

"Solntseva pairs Alexander's idyllic memories with pictorial rhapsody, filling the screen with a molten crimson sunrise, wavering light on a river's surface which looks like animated Abstract Expressionism, mist drifting dreamily along the riverbanks, smoke billowing, and clouds swarming amid the twilit sky." (Richard Brody, The New Yorker)
Section: HOMMAGE: JULIA SOLNTSEVA
Directed by: Julija Solnceva
Country, year: Soviet Union, Ukraine, 1964
Length: 81 minutes
Subtitles: English,Slovenian
Language: Ukrainian, Russian

Screening in cinema:

Thu, 20.11.2025 19:00 Slovenian Cinematheque
Sun, 23.11.2025 16:30 Slovenian Cinematheque

VOD service:

Notice
Please note that this film is not available as VOD service.
Screenplay:
Aleksander Dovženko
Cinematography:
Aleksej Temerin
Music:
Gavriil Popov
Cast:
Boris Andrejev (Platon Poltorak), Jevgenij Bondarenko (Mikola), Vladimir Gončarov (Saško), Zinaida Kirijenko (Odarka), Ivan Pereverzev (nadzornik gradnje)
Producent:
Mosfilm
Sales:
Dovzhenko Film Studios
filmfund@dovzhenkocentre.org
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About director
Born in 1901 in Moscow, died in 1989. Solntseva first made a career as a film actress, then moved into filmmaking, initially working in close creative partnership with her husband, Alexander Dovzhenko. After Dovzhenko's death, she dedicated herself to completing the projects he had left behind, directing films based on Dovzhenko's scripts - the patriotic "Ukrainian Trilogy" - Poem of the Sea, The Story of the Flaming Years and The Enchanted Desna. In 1961, she became the first woman awarded Best Director at Cannes for Chronicle of Flaming Years.
Filmography
1958 Poema o more (Poem of the Sea/Pesem o morju)
1961 Povest plamenih let (The Story of the Flaming Years/Zgodba o vojnih letih)
1964 Začarovanaja Desna (The Enchanted Desna/Očarljiva Desna)
1971 Zolotje vorota (The Golden Crates)
1974 Takije visokije gori (Such High Mountains)
1980 Mir v trjoh izmerenijah (The World in Three Dimensions)