Poem of the Sea

Ilhnat Fedorchenko, a general in the Soviet army, returns to his native village in Ukraine to find that it is about to be submerged as part of the reservoir for a new power plant that is being built nearby. Though most of the local workforce have left to work at the plant, Ihnat finds that many of his old acquaintances have also returned to take a final look at the village.

Solntseva directed Poem of the Sea from a script written by her husband Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who died just before shooting was to begin. Though Solntseva maintained that her only intention was to fulfil her late husband’s intentions, the film’s poetic exploration of memory, transformation and modernity displays a talent for filmmaking that was all her own. Poem of the Sea is one of the classics of Ukrainian cinema.