Michael Gann

The Tragedy of Carpatho-Ukraine

Documentary-filmed events in the Carpatho-Ukraine (aka Ruthenia) during 1939 drive this history of the Ukraine's struggle for independence as a nation.

Cossacks in Exile

Director Edgar G. Ulmer executed the low-budget COSSACKS IN EXILE (1939), for Ukrainian-Canadian producer Vasile Avramenko, with a stylish flair; this obscure little operetta contains many pleasant moments. In the Ukraine, 1775, the Zaporogian Cossacks learn that Moscow is sending soldiers to destroy their fort. The Ukrainian villagers appeal to Czarina Catherine, but she insists that they join the Russian army or risk annihilation. Instead, the Cossacks burn their fort and flee on the Danube River to Turkey, where they live in peace, but still yearn for their homeland.