Original title: Yagodka liubvi
Copyright: VUFKU (Vseukrainske fotokinoupravlinnia), Yalta, 1926
The Mosfilm Studio, 1975, directed by Yulia Solntseva, 3 p., 770 m (sound-track release).
Format: feature, narrative
Carrier: DVD
Color: black-and-white
Length: 25" or 720 m
Original language: silent with Russian inter-titles and musical accompaniment
English subtitles: yes

Film crew
Director: Oleksander Dovzhenko
Script writer: Oleksander Dovzhenko
Cinematographer: Danylo Demutsky and Yosyp Rona
Artistic designer: Ivan Suvorov

Film cast
M. Krushelnytsky as Jean Kovbasiuk, the barber
M. Chardynina-Barskaya as the girl
D. Kapka as the toyshop attendant
I. Zamychkovsky as the fat man who bought the baby in lieu of a doll
V. Lisovsky, as the old man to whom the fat man planted the baby
L. Chembarsky as the dandy to whom the old man planted the baby
I. Zemhano as the photographer
K. Zapadnaya as the girl on the boulevard
M. Nademsky as the seltzer water vendor

Synopsis
From the introduction by Serhy Trymbach:
“The second film of Oleksander Dovzhenko was his real debut as a director. In August 1926, Dovzhenko brought to the Odesa Film Factory a screenplay of an eccentric comedy entitled “Zhan Kovbasiuk”. Its protagonist was a barber, who became a victim of his girlfriend’s mean intrigue – she attempted to persuade him to marry her, claiming that the baby he had once seen her with was by him. In the end Jean who as decency commanded marries her, discovers that the baby in fact belongs to his wife’s aunt.
The film is in part inspired by the comedies and the screen persona of the celebrated French comedian Max Linder who enjoyed a great popularity at the time. On the other hand it builds on the domestic varieties of the vaudeville genre that, with its pronounced elements of song and dance, by then had taken root in the Ukrainian culture not least because of its closeness to the indigenous folk entertainment forms. The film appears to be one of the earliest examples of the Ukrainian cinematic tradition also manifest in such later comedies as “Moscovite the Enchanter” (Moskal-charivnyk), “As Fashion Dictates” (Po-modniomu), “Chasing the Two Hares” (Za dvoma zaitsiamy), - all extremely popular at the time; “Chasing the Two Hares” directed by Viktor Ivanov in 1961, who closely knew Dovzhenko, is often said to be the most popular Ukrainian film ever made.
Dovzhenko was initially of the opinion that the comedic genre was his vocation in filmmaking.
Said Dovzhenko, “When I switched to work in filmmaking I thought to devote myself exclusively to the comedic genre. Both my first screenplay “Vasya the Reformer” (Vasia reformator), which I had written for the VUFKU and my first directorial work “Love’s Berry”, 500 meters long, which I wrote myself in three days were comedies. My un-realized films  “Fatherland” – about Jews in Palestine, “Cast-Away Chaplin”, - about Chaplin’s life on a desert island, and “Tsar” – a satirical comedy about tsar Nicholas II.” Dovzhenko however would never had another opportunity to shoot in the genre of comedy.