Vain Battles

Both literary works are included in school textbooks, reflecting dramatic pages in Polish history and constituting Polish national pride, even embodying its culture. For Ukraine, the release of With Fire and Sword is interesting not only as an example of wise filmmaking strategy, when national cinematography spares little (the picture's budget is some $14 million) to enter a real competition with Hollywood blockbusters, but also a scandal that broke out when Bohdan Stupka agreed to act as Bohdan Khmelnytsky. At the time wrathful domestic critics were prepared to accuse the actor of capital treason, saying that in Sienkiewicz's epic the Ukrainian national liberation war is portrayed as anything but heroic. As for Mr. Stupka (he has seen the end product), he claims that there is not a single anti-Ukrainian implication in Hofman's movie, and that it is not a political film but just a beautiful masterfully staged melodrama. Ukrainian viewers will probably see this with their own eyes when With Fire and Sword is shown in Kyiv presumably at the Stozhary festival this August or during the ceremony of opening the Molodist festival in October.