In the Carpathian Mountains of 19th-century Ukraine, love, hate, life and death among the Hutsul people are as they’ve been since time began. Ivan is drawn to Marichka, the beautiful young daughter of the man who killed his father. But fate tragically decrees that the two lovers will remain apart.
In a mountain village one woman's beauty and popularity with the men incurs the wrath of the others. AKA The Stray.
In the dark days of Nazi occupation, a young Hutsul girl native to the Carpathian mountains falls in love with a wounded Soviet partisan. Their affair sets in motion a tragic chain of events, as her family turns against her with shocking results.
“The Carpathians are medieval!” one character bellows, and this tale of the tree-chopper Petro, his faithless wife Marijka, and various scheming businessmen and foremen does little to disprove the assertion. Interestingly filmed with a nonprofessional cast recruited from the region, Faithless Marijka may have a neorealist conceit, but its direction is utterly futuristic, filled with the lightning-fast montage techniques and low-angle camera of the Soviet avant-garde (along with its invigorating agitprop).
The documentary film is not a search for the survived truth of the inhabitants of the Ruthenian village Ladomírová. It captures their subjective memories, often frozen in time and in everyday life. Only strong impressions of sadness, joy, suffering, which reflect the great history of the 20th century. There is no truth about the past, it is only the human mind that actually makes morytates - bloody enlightening stories and legends.
The 20th century was the roughest in history for the Carpatho-Rusyns of Central Europe. After World War II, when they were declared Ukrainians by the new Communist regimes in every country where they live, Carpatho-Rusyns in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere became extinct overnight -- and this was their existence for more than 50 years. But with the 1989 Velvet Revolution, led by the playwright and former dissident Václav Havel, Carpatho-Rusyn ethnicity revived in every country - including the United States. This is the story of that revival.
Dedicated to the Lemkos, who through their extraordinary love for the country overcame the trauma of massive deportations during the "Operation Vistula" and managed to return to their homeland. This film is a story about the fate of people from the annihilated Długie village, and it talks about Małastów village, where Lemkos, originally the dominant group, were transformed into a defenceless minority. Today, with admirable perseverance, they continue to fight for their rights. Above all, this is a film about love, which is the most precious thing.
