Movie Night: Za dvoma zaytsiamy (Viktor Ivanov, 1961)

- December 31st, 2024

Sunday January 5, 2025, Movie Night: Za dvoma zaytsiamy * За двома зайцями * directed by Viktor Ivanov * 1961 * 77 minutes * in Ukrainian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

This comedy is an adaption of play that tells the story of Svyryd Holokhvistyi, a barber who tries to get rich by marrying a wealthy bourgeois woman, Pronia Sirko, while at the same time courting a poor, beautiful girl, Halia. The story raises the problem of social inequality and ridicules the life of Ukrainian Russified bourgeoisie in Kyiv.
The title of the movie is “Za dvoma zaytsiamy” which means the “to chase two rabbits”. In English, they use the phraseology – “to chase two birds” a person’s desire to do two things at once and result is rhetorical.
The film was shot in Ukrainian at the Dovzhenko Film Studio, as it was originally rated second category and was planned to be shown only in the Ukrainian SSR. Later, when the movie gained huge popularity, it was partially re-dubbed into russian by the same actors, and was launched in all-Union distribution. The original soundtrack in Ukrainian was long thought to be lost, but was found in the Mariupol film fund in 2013. On October 27, 2013, the film with the original Ukrainian-language was presented to the public in Kyiv.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net