Chervona Ruta (film)
Encyclopedia
Chervona Ruta is a 1971 Soviet Ukrainian
musical film
written by Miroslav Skochilyas and directed by Roman Oleksiv, starring Sofia Rotaru
and Vasyl Zinkevych
alongside popular Soviet Ukrainian ensemble
s. One of the first modern Soviet musical films, and the first modern Ukrainian musical filmed in Bukovina
and the Carpathian
mountains in the Ukrainian SSR
, Chervona Ruta features short dialogues combined with legendary pop-folk
songs in the Ukrainian language
and characteristic Western Ukraine
dances in modern pop choreography
.
Translated from the Ukrainian, Chervona Ruta
means "Red Rue
". However, the expression became a proper noun and is generally not translated. The term Chervona Ruta derives from the old East Slavic
legend, according to which the girl who will find Chervona Ruta on the Ivan Kupala Day
, will be happy in love
.
-Verkhovyna
" train she becomes acquainted with a young miner from Donetsk
called Boris. The travellers fall in love, but are parted when they arrive at their destination. In the Carpathian mountains
their paths diverge, but Boris (played by Vasyl Zinkevych, soloist of the instrumental band Smerichka) discovers where she is staying. The couple meet again and rekindle their love. Their friends invite them to perform in a concert for vacationers at a mountain resort, where they sing of their feelings for each other.
. She was at that time a teacher at the Chernivtsi
Musical College. When filming of the first Ukrainian musical started in Yaremche
Rotaru was given the role of Oksana.
In the film Sofia Rotaru performs "Grey-winged Bird" - the Italian hit song , professionally translated
in Ukrainian by Roman Kudlik, "Draw Me the Night" and "Autumn Is Close", and also (in duet with Zinkevych) "Vodohray".
The recording of "Vodohray" by the tenor
Vasily and the alto
Sofia was not used in the final version of the film. Instead Nazariy Yaremchyuk performed for Vasyl Zinkevych, and Mariya Isak performed for Sofia Rotaru. In the film Maria Isak appears fifth in the row of five girls, for a couple of seconds. It appears that the original performance had a defective soundtrack
.
The fact that the soundtrack for the song "Vodohray" was recorded by other singers was revealed only thirty years after. After the release of the television movie
, the singers became unexpectedly famous in the USSR and in Eastern Europe
. These seemingly amateur (but talented) singers became committed to the professional stage. Sofia Rotaru did change, and Mariya Isak had a son born to her and eventually withdrew from the stage to raise her family.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
written by Miroslav Skochilyas and directed by Roman Oleksiv, starring Sofia Rotaru
Sofia Rotaru
Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru known as Sofia Rotaru is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage....
and Vasyl Zinkevych
Vasily Zinkevich
Vasyl Zinkevych is a Soviet and Ukrainian singer, actor. He was appointed a People's Artist of Ukraine in 1995, received the Ukrainian State Prize in 1994 and became a Hero of Ukraine in 2009.- External links :*...
alongside popular Soviet Ukrainian ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
s. One of the first modern Soviet musical films, and the first modern Ukrainian musical filmed in Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
and the Carpathian
Carpathian
Carpathian may refer to:*Carpathian Mountains of Central and Eastern Europe*Carpathian Convention on sustainable development in that region*Carpathian Shepherd Dog, a Romanian sheep dog*Subcarpathian Voivodeship, an administrative division of Poland...
mountains in the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
, Chervona Ruta features short dialogues combined with legendary pop-folk
Pop-folk
Pop-folk is the umbrella term for the popular musical genres originating in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that are characteristic by the fusion of commercial folk music and "nightclub" music. The term is used alternatively for Turbo-folk and Chalga and is mostly used in Bulgaria...
songs in the Ukrainian language
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and characteristic Western Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
dances in modern pop choreography
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
.
Translated from the Ukrainian, Chervona Ruta
Chervona Ruta
Chervona Ruta is a flower, but also part of the Ukrainian culture related to the holiday of Ivan Kupala Day. According to the legend, still respected in Carpathian mountains and Bukovina, rue is a yellow flower which turns red only for a couple of minutes on the night of Ivan Kupala...
means "Red Rue
Rue
Rue is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20–60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, Macaronesia and southwest Asia. There are perhaps 8 to 40 species in the genus...
". However, the expression became a proper noun and is generally not translated. The term Chervona Ruta derives from the old East Slavic
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
legend, according to which the girl who will find Chervona Ruta on the Ivan Kupala Day
Ivan Kupala Day
Kupala Day is celebrated in Poland, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine currently on the night of 6/7 July in the Gregorian or New Style calendar, which is 23/24 June in the Julian or Old Style calendar still used by many Orthodox Churches. Calendar-wise, it is opposite to the winter solstice holiday...
, will be happy in love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
.
Plot
Oksana (played by Sofia Rotaru) is a young and beautiful Carpathian girl. On the "DonetskDonetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
-Verkhovyna
Verkhovyna
Verkhovyna is a town located in the western Ukrainian oblast of Ivano-Frankivsk. Originally established as Żabie in 1424. The city is located in the Hutsul region of Carpathian Mountains called Pokuttya, upon the Cheremosh River, a tributary of the Prut. Verkhovyna is currently an important...
" train she becomes acquainted with a young miner from Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
called Boris. The travellers fall in love, but are parted when they arrive at their destination. In the Carpathian mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
their paths diverge, but Boris (played by Vasyl Zinkevych, soloist of the instrumental band Smerichka) discovers where she is staying. The couple meet again and rekindle their love. Their friends invite them to perform in a concert for vacationers at a mountain resort, where they sing of their feelings for each other.
Cast
- Sofia RotaruSofia RotaruSofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru known as Sofia Rotaru is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage....
as a young girl Oksana - Vasyl ZinkevychVasily ZinkevichVasyl Zinkevych is a Soviet and Ukrainian singer, actor. He was appointed a People's Artist of Ukraine in 1995, received the Ukrainian State Prize in 1994 and became a Hero of Ukraine in 2009.- External links :*...
as Boris, a young miner from DonetskDonetskDonetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region... - Volodymyr IvasyukVolodymyr IvasyukVolodymyr Mykhailovych Ivasyuk or Volodymyr Ivasiuk was a very popular Ukrainian songwriter, composer and poet from the Ukrainian SSR...
- Levko Dutkivsky
- Nazary Yaremchuk
- Anatoly Evdokimenko
- Alla Dutkivskaya
- Raisa Koltsa
Production
The idea to make a movie about Ukrainian pop-folk culture set in the Carpathian mountains arose from the fame of Smerichka and the popularity of the song "Chervona Ruta" in the Soviet Union. The original idea was to make a movie about Smerichka, using Vasily Zinkevich as the main actor (another soloist from the group, Nazary Yaremchuk, had also been considered). As there was no female leading actor in Smerichka the scenario was changed to a simple plot about a sudden blaze of love between Boris, an unsophisticated miner, and the Bukovinian beauty Oksana. By 1971 Sofia Rotaru was already a well-known singer in Bukovina both for her pop-folk songs and for her victory at the 1968 International Song Festival in BulgariaBulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. She was at that time a teacher at the Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...
Musical College. When filming of the first Ukrainian musical started in Yaremche
Yaremcha
Yaremche is a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast of west Ukraine. The city is a raion itself including one urbanized village Vorokhta, a ski resort, and five other villages: Mykulychyn, Polianytsia, Tatariv, Voronenko, and Yablunytsia. The city's population is 7,850 at the altitude of around 580m...
Rotaru was given the role of Oksana.
In the film Sofia Rotaru performs "Grey-winged Bird" - the Italian hit song , professionally translated
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
in Ukrainian by Roman Kudlik, "Draw Me the Night" and "Autumn Is Close", and also (in duet with Zinkevych) "Vodohray".
The recording of "Vodohray" by the tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Vasily and the alto
Alto
Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
Sofia was not used in the final version of the film. Instead Nazariy Yaremchyuk performed for Vasyl Zinkevych, and Mariya Isak performed for Sofia Rotaru. In the film Maria Isak appears fifth in the row of five girls, for a couple of seconds. It appears that the original performance had a defective soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
.
The fact that the soundtrack for the song "Vodohray" was recorded by other singers was revealed only thirty years after. After the release of the television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, the singers became unexpectedly famous in the USSR and in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. These seemingly amateur (but talented) singers became committed to the professional stage. Sofia Rotaru did change, and Mariya Isak had a son born to her and eventually withdrew from the stage to raise her family.
- Director producer: R. Oleksiv
- Scenario: M.Skochilyas, R. Oleksiv
- Sound operator: V. Strihovich
- Caneraman: A. Derbinyan
- Direcot assistant: A. Savchenko
- Cameraman assistant: A. Ermolichik
- Montage: V. Chernousova, N. Kovali
- Editor: T. Derzkaya
- Director: B. Dubitskiy
Soundtrack
- Following songs are performed in the film: "Spring Came", "On fast Trains", "No One's", "My Sweetheart", "Left Flowers", "Uncomparable World of Beauty", "Rier Runs", "If Love Is Over", "Greywinged Bird» (Ukrainian cover of ImmensitàImmensità"L'immensità" is an Italian song, which was first performed by Johnny Dorelli in 1967 and became 9th at the Festival of Italian Song in Sanremo.-Covers:The song was later covered by a number of artists.* Don Backy...
), «Chervona RutaChervona Ruta (song)Chervona Ruta is a popular Ukrainian song written by Volodymyr Ivasyuk in 1968 and performed by many singers. The song was never copyrighted and therefore is considered the Ukrainian folk song....
», «Draw Me the Night», «Sweeps Stopped Fling», «You Will Return, Beloved», «Vodogray», «There, Where Mountains and Forests» - Ensembles: "Eureka", "Karpaty", "Rosinka", "Smerichka", "Chervona Ruta"
- Composers: V. Gromtsev, Volodymyr IvasyukVolodymyr IvasyukVolodymyr Mykhailovych Ivasyuk or Volodymyr Ivasiuk was a very popular Ukrainian songwriter, composer and poet from the Ukrainian SSR...
, L. Dutkovskiy, E. Kolmanovskiy, Don BackyDon BackyDon Backy, real name — Aldo Caponi, is an Italian singer and author. He collaborated with Sofia Rotaru for "Grey Bird" - Ukrainian version of Italian song "L'immensità".-External links:*...
, B. Yanivskiy, M. Skorika - Text authors: M. Buchko, Volodymyr IvasyukVolodymyr IvasyukVolodymyr Mykhailovych Ivasyuk or Volodymyr Ivasiuk was a very popular Ukrainian songwriter, composer and poet from the Ukrainian SSR...
, R. Ischyuk, A. Fartushnyak, V. Grigorak, R. Kudlik, M. Petrenko
| N° | Song | Performed by | Authors | Commentaries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spring Came |
Sofia Rotaru Sofia Rotaru Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru known as Sofia Rotaru is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage.... |
Lyrics: Music: |
|
| 2 | On Fast Trains |
Sofia Rotaru Sofia Rotaru Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru known as Sofia Rotaru is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage.... |
Lyrics: Music: |
|
| 3 | No One's |
Sofia Rotaru Sofia Rotaru Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru known as Sofia Rotaru is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage.... |
Lyrics: Music: |
|