Cherkasy, also known as U311 Cherkasy,[1] is a Ukrainian feature film directed by Tymur Yashchenko about the defense of the eponymous naval Natya-class minesweeper, blocked by Russian troops in Donuzlav Bay, Crimea during the 2014 capture of Southern Naval Base. The film was created with the support of the State Cinema of Ukraine.

U311 Cherkasy in 2012

The premiere of the festival version of the film took place on 16 July 2019, at the Odesa International Film Festival.[2] The distribution version of the film was released in Ukraine on 27 February 2020 by Multi Media Distribution (MMD) UA.

Synopsis

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Myshko and Lev are men from a Ukrainian village who, for various reasons, find themselves on the Ukrainian Navy warship Cherkasy, stationed in the port of the Crimean Lake Donuzlav, during the events on the Maidan (public protests) in 2014.

At a time when the crew of the minesweeper Cherkasy is being trained, President Yanukovych is fleeing Ukraine and Crimea is being seized by "little green men." The occupation of the Crimean peninsula begins. The ship returns to base, but the port is already lost. Cherkasy, along with the other ships of the Ukrainian fleet, is blockaded in Lake Donuzlav when the path to the sea is blocked by scuttled ships.

Ukrainian ships surrender one after another. Only the crew of Cherkasy resists and continues a brave, albeit hopeless, fight against the enemy.

Cast

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Actor Role
Yevhen Lamakh Myshko (Mykhaylo), senior sailor
Dmytro Sova Lev, sailor
Roman Semysal Yuri Fedash, captain of the 3rd rank, ship commander
Vadym Lyalko Midshipman
Ruslan Koval Serhiy, Foreman
Yevhen Avdieyenko Іllya
Oleh Shcherbyna "Hare"
Mykhaylo Voskoboynyk "Sport"
Oles Katsion Cook
Maksym Zapisochnyy Hena, Foreman
Serhiy Detyuk Navigator
Dmytro Havrylov Vadym Boyko, Lieutenant
Tymur Aslanov Senior mechanic
Vitalina Bibliv Mother of Myshko
Orest Harda Father of Myshko
Valery Astakhov Village head
Oleksandr Laptiy Tagir
Alexandra Bohna Rodzik
Oleh Karpenko

Shooting

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In early April, Yuriy Tkachenko, the chairman of the Cherkasy regional state administration, said that in April 2017, the Odesa region would continue shooting a film about the minesweeper Cherkasy.[3] Officially, filming of the events on Donuzlav began on 18 April 2017, off the coast of Ochakiv and Kinburn Spit.[4] For filming, the scene of the sunken Russian ships with which the invaders blocked the way of the Cherkasy was recreated.[5] Instead of the actual minesweeper Cherkasy, which Russia never returned to Ukraine, the Ukrainian fleet tug Korets was used for filming.[6] Yuri Fedash, the real-life commander of the Cherkasy, was the military consultant for the film.

The scenes with pro-Russian appearances in Crimea were shot in Odesa. Filming was also carried out in a village in Chernihiv Oblast.

Budget

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The total budget of the film was about 40 million hryvnias, of which the support of Goskino was about 17.3 million.[7] The rest of the budget was provided by the navy of the armed forces of Ukraine of the Odesa and Chernihiv regions.[8] In February 2019, the creators collected 350 thousand hryvnias for post-production (200 thousand was collected on the crowdfunding platform biggggidea, as well as 150 thousand hryvnias, which were added by the International Renaissance Foundation).[9]

Release

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Initially, it was planned that the film would be released on 24 August 2018 on the Independence Day of Ukraine,[10] but it was postponed to 2019.[11]

The Ukrainian premiere of the festival version of the film took place on 16 July 2019 at the Odesa International Film Festival 2019, where the film competed in the section "National films — full-length."[12] On 15 October, the film was premiered internationally at the Warsaw Film Festival 2019, where it competed in the main competition.[13]

The wide release distribution version of the film was released in Ukraine on 27 February 2020, by the distributor MMD UA.[14]

On 14 October 2020, the TV premiere version of the film took place in Ukraine on the TV channel "1 + 1."[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Черкаси". dzygamdb.com (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  2. ^ "На Одеському кінофестивалі покажуть україно-польський фільм про анексію Криму". Espreso (in Ukrainian). 20 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Фільм про тральник "Черкаси" дознімуть вже цього року". Dzvin (in Ukrainian). 9 April 2017. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017.
  4. ^ Iryna Nazarchuk (20 April 2017). ""Перший бій": історію опору кримських моряків покажуть на великих екранах". Крим.Реалії (in Ukrainian).
  5. ^ "Україна почала знімати новий художній фільм на узбережжі Чорного моря". 24 Channel (in Ukrainian). 24 April 2017.
  6. ^ Albiy Shudrya (27 February 2020). ""Черкаси": фільм про спротив українського корабля в Криму вийшов на екрани". BBC News in Ukrainian (in Ukrainian).
  7. ^ "Держава дасть 17 мільйонів на зйомки фільму про тральщик "Черкаси"". Dzvin (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  8. ^ Bozhena Horodnytska (5 April 2018). "Сміливий кінодебют про відважних матросів". Zbruč (in Ukrainian).
  9. ^ "Воєнна драма "Черкаси"". biggggidea (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 7 April 2019.
  10. ^ "Фільм "Черкаси" про спротив російській агресії у Криму покажуть на День Незалежності". Detector Media (in Ukrainian). 27 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Прем'єру фільму про тральщик "Черкаси" перенесли на наступний рік" (in Ukrainian). Radio Liberty. 8 August 2018.
  12. ^ "25 фільмів Одеського кінофестивалю — 2019". Moviegram (in Ukrainian). 8 July 2019. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019.
  13. ^ ""U-311: Черкаси" у головному конкурсі 35-го Варшавського міжнародного кінофестивалю" (in Ukrainian). Ukrainian State Film Agency. 1 August 2019. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019.
    - Cherkasy / U311 Черкаси. WFF, 2019
  14. ^ "Українські фільми, які MMD UA планує випустити у кінопрокат". Beech (in Ukrainian). 5 July 2019. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019.
    - "Воєнна драма «Черкаси» вийде в прокат 27 лютого 2020 року". Detector Media (in Ukrainian). 15 July 2019. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019.
  15. ^ ""1+1» покаже телепрем'єру драми «Черкаси"". Detector Media (in Ukrainian). 3 October 2020. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020.