Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko is a 1951 Soviet biopic about the Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko, written and directed by Igor Savchenko. The New York Times praised the acting of Sergei Bondarchuk. Synopsis Summer 1841. Lermontov is killed. The news of this arrives to a modest attic of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where lives and works the young artist and poet Taras Shevchenko. Growing up in a Ukrainian peasant family, knowing all hardships of serf life, Shevchenko in the years of study clearly identifies the meaning of true art, which is to serve the interests of the people. After graduating from the Academy, Shevchenko goes to Ukraine. The poems of Taras are imbued with love for the common people. Landowner-nationalists, liberal leaders of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, try to "tame" the famous poet, but Shevchenko forever has made his choice; he is on the side of the people, their defender and crooner. The fiery freedom-loving creativity of Taras Shevchenko is known throughout Russia. Nicholas I exiles the poet to the distant Caspian fort where he is to serve as an ordinary soldier and is banned from writing or drawing. In the poet's difficult days he has the support of Ukrainian soldier Skobelev, Polish revolutionary Serakovsky, captain Kosarev and the major of the fortress, Uskov.