Original title: Krynytsia dlia sprahlykh.

Copyright: Oleksander Dovzhenko Studio, 1965.

Format: narrative feature, a cinematographic parable.

Carrier: DVD

Color: monochromatic

Length: 71 min.

Original language: Ukrainian

English subtitles: yes

Film crew

Director: Yuri Illienko

Script writer: Ivan Drach

Director of photography: Yuri Illienko and Volodymyr Davydov

Art design: P. Maksymenko, A. Mamontov

Composer: Leonid Hrabovsky

Sound: N. Avramenko

Film editor: N. Pyshchykova

Supervising editor O. Syzonenko

Production manager: D. Yanover

Film cast:

Dmytro Miliutenko, Larysa Kadochnykova, Fedosia Lytvynenko, Nina Alisova, Dzhemma Firsova, Ivan Kostiuchenko, Yevhen Baliev, Yuri Mazhuha, Olena Kovalenko, Kostiantyn Yershov, Natalia Mishchenko, Volodymyr Lemport, Mykola Sylis, Hryhoriy Basenko.

Extras - collective farmers and schoolchildren of the Chyhyryn District.

Synopsis

The directorial debut of one of the greatest masters of Ukrainian poetic cinema focuses on the life drama of the elderly villager Levko Serdiuk, a Ukrainian philosopher-peasant. Levko’s preoccupation with the well that provides everybody with water is ridiculed by his neighbors. His children are increasingly alienated from him and the values he espouses. Written by the poet Ivan Drach, the film has a striking monochromatic photography by Yuri Illienko and Volodymyr Davydov and is an indictment of dehumanizing influence of Soviet society on its citizens. The film is an early manifestation of what later became Illienko’s signature manner of narration - a story loaded with symbolism (water for purity, sand for death and perdition, apples for life and renewal), allegories, and reflection. It is a treat for lovers of cinematographic enigmas. The film was banned by the regime and became a kind of unintended cinematic manifesto of Ukrainian dissidents and non-conformists, a.k.a shistdesiatnyky (the sixtiers).