Le cosaque et la gitane
WINNER of PETER AND YOLANDE-PERRAULT PRIZE
Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (RVCQ) 2013
«For the personal touch and the narration revealing in subtle ways the fate of the characters in all its precarity; for the cinematic trajectory gracefully combining individual stories and the Great History; for the powerful both sound and visual evocations.»
The Cossack and the Gypsy takes us to the heart of intimate worlds of Lev Chayka and Régine Gabrysz, illustrating their memories, interior views composed of the stories about their childhood and devotion to their country of origin (Ukraine and Soviet Union). The wars and dictatorship of the past in the Eastern Europe is set in contrast with the Far North of Quebec in a forgotten boom town. Vera and Jack, the last miner, Régine and Lev are among the last first immigrants. Their Slavic voices and accents still lull the Abitibi sonorous landscapes, but for how long…
Lev Chayka is almost 90; he is the knight Cossack with the identifying search for recognition of the Ukrainian presence in Abitibi. Continuously between two spaces, he carries on his mission waiting for the replacement. His home port and his house are in Val-d'Or, a place frozen in time, off the light, where he can recreate his own temporality.
Régine Gabrysz arrived to Val-d'Or in 1952 accompanied by her spouse and her first three children. Polyglot, she became the “mum” and interpreter for so numerous at those days immigrants. Being 89, extravert with a vivid personality, she lives surrounded by “her spirits”, deceased loved ones who come back to life around her in a fabulous world.
Documentary, 77 min, 2012
V.O. french/ukrainian/russian with english subtitles
Director: Nadine Beaudet
Photography: Christian M. Fournier
Editing : René Roberge
Sound design and editing : Claude Beaugrand
Music : Charles Papasoff
Translation : Victoria Novak
Producer consultant: Lucie Lambert
Producers : Christian M. Fournier, Nadine Beaudet
Distribution : Les films du 3 mars ventes@f3m.ca
