Chervona Ruta (film)

• VIA Rosinka
• VIA Smerichka
• VIA Karpaty
• VIA Evrika

Soloists:

• Sofia Rotar as Oksana
• Vasyl Zinkevych as Boris
• Raisa Koltsa
• Nazariy Yaremchuk

• Volodymyr Ivasyuk
• Levko Dutkovskiy
• Anatoliy Yevdokymenko
• Alla Dutkovska
• Mariya Isak

The idea to make a movie about Ukrainian pop-folk culture set in the Carpathian mountains arose from the fame of the VIA Smerichka and the popularity of the song "Chervona ruta" by Volodymyr Ivasyuk in the Soviet Union. The original idea was to make a movie about Smerichka. However, the scenario was changed to a simple plot about a sudden blaze of love between Boris, an unsophisticated miner, and the Bukovinian beauty Oksana.[5]

26-year-old Vasyl Zinkevych from Smerichka was cast as Boris over 19-year-old Nazariy Yaremchuk. As there was no female lead singer in Smerichka, Sofia Rotaru was suggested for the part. Initially, Smerichka singer Mariya Isak had been considered for the female role, but in the end, she was not cast as the producers preferred Rotaru.[6] By 1971, Sofia Rotaru was already a well-known singer in Bukovina both for her pop-folk songs and for her victory at the 1968 International Song Festival in Bulgaria.[5]

Two Smerichka members had been excluded from filming because they wore beards.[5]

Other personnel that worked on the film, included:

• Director producer: Roman Oleksiv
• Scenario: M.Skochilyas, Roman Oleksiv
• Sound operator: Vasyl Strykhovych
• Caneraman: A. Derbinyan
• Director's assistant: A. Savchenko
• Cameraman's assistant: A. Ermolichik
• Montage: V. Chernousova, N. Kovali
• Editor: T. Derzkaya
• Director: B. Dubitskiy

Yaremche Railway Station, where Zinkevych descends the stairs before the title credits are shown.

The initial filming of Chervona ruta took place in August 1971 in Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. The spectators of the concert in the film were actually holiday-makers in Yaremche that came to curiously watch the filming and performances.[5]

During the filming, the crew and artists stayed in leftover rooms in homes in the village of Dora, nowadays part of Yaremche. During the filming, it became clear that Sofia Rotaru did not own the right clothes to fit into the pop-folk style of the film, and as a result, Vasyl Zinkevych was sent for Vyzhnytsia to collect one of Alla Dutkosvka's dresses.[5]

During the film, the mother of Nazariy Yaremchuk passed away. Initially, it was unknown whether Yaremchuk would be able to complete filming due to Hutsul mourning customs. Eventually, Yaremchuk managed to complete filming.[7]

The music from the film came from popular local amateur music ensembles. In the film, Sofia sang "U Karpatakh hodyt' osin'", a song that was normally performed by Smerichka, but had been lent to Rotaru by Levko Dutkovskiy. All of the songs were recorded by sound operator Vasyl Strikhovych.

The recording of "Vodohray" by the tenor Vasyl and the alto Sofia was not used in the final version of the film. Instead Nazariy Yaremchuk's voice was dubbed in place of Vasyl Zinkevych, and Mariya Isak's voice was dubbed in place of Sofia Rotaru in the song. It appears that the original performance had a defective soundtrack.[8] In the film Mariya Isak appears fifth in the row of five girls, for a couple of seconds.

In 1981, ten years after the release of the film, a sequel titled Chervona ruta: 10 rokiv potomu was released on Ukrainian television. In this film, Vasyl Zinkevych and Nazariy Yaremchuk discuss the impact that the film had on their lives. Next to that, the film shows performances of Zinkevych and Yaremchuk, as well as Sofia Rotaru and VIA Smerichka. Volodymyr Ivasyuk, who contributed heavily to the original film, was only mentioned once.[12]

In 2019, it was announced that Ukrainian producer Nataliya Yaksymovych was planning to create a modern version of the film, titled Chervona ruta: Nova istoriya. The film would be a romantic comedy, using the vast body of Ivasyuk's songs.[13] The sequel was pitched as a story about a young and shy Carpathian girl who goes on a journey across Ukraine.[14]