Mykola Hohol's seemingly horrific story is actually a subtle way of expressing the psychophysiological development inside the female body, or more accurately, the issue of hormones. First, why does a maiden transform into an old woman? Next, why does the girl die during the day and come back to life at night? Finally, why does she befriend a demon, or more precisely, animal genitalia? Once you understand these issues, you will know why the seminarian said: "In Kyiv, all grannies in the market-place are witches".

Now you'll have a clue to unraveling the story. A different way of telling it, typical of Vietnamese storytelling, but with a more optimistic ending. A student was on his way to the capital to take an exam when it got dark. He asked to stay at an old man's house, whose daughter had been lying motionless for three days. The student accidentally discovered that three demons had possessed the girl's body to prevent their own souls from dissipating. The young man used his knowledge to drive away the demons and restore the girl's health. What happened next is probably something everyone can guess.

Watch : 1 2 3

From my days of the university, I learned that Hohol was immersed in folklore from a young age, something not everyone has the opportunity to experience. His stories often mock women, like this one. Let me explain!

Mykola Hohol likely relied on a very familiar motif from the lower Eastern culture to lead us into a love adventure. According to Asian beliefs, or rather, from Indian civilization, lunar eclipses are often explained as a demon swallowing the moon. The moon has always been associated with the beauty of the female body: A full moon could represent pregnancy, or the physiological maturation of a woman, things that were difficult to explain in Hohol's time. Therefore, the devil represents the desires of all the villagers. Why did the men flock to Solokha's house? Why did Oksana, despite being in love with Vakula (whom wasn't actually handsome, just strong), still demand such a high dowry (if not an impossible one)? And why did Vakula force the devil to take him to the capital citadel (even though that's unlikely to happen in a single day)?

If you can answer at least these three questions, I believe you'll have a good laugh after watching the whole film.

I remember seeing this when I was younger on UK TV and it stuck with me since then. I've just rewatched it all and it's as good, if not better than I remembered it to be. The animation is stunning and although there's a roughness to the characters there's such fluidity in the movement. The music is also exceptional. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Operator: Violetta Karosanidze.

A rare film from Georgia Film's 1960s period, during which the studio was transitioning from the Stalinist to the post-Stalinist era. This period seems to be more poorly attested that the ones before or after... for example, this film seems to survive only in black & white (though I assume it was originally in colour). So far, this is the only Georgian cartoon from this period on the site, and might be one of their earliest puppet films. At around the same time, puppet films began to be created in other Soviet animation studios as well. Also, unlike all the earlier Georgian cartoons I've seen, this one doesn't have fantastical elements (well... except for the doctor somehow managing to re-attach the boy's leg after it has been ripped clean off!)

The 1965 date (which I've only found on the Arjlover forum) does seem more likely than the 1958 date which is almost everywhere else online, given that Sulakauri's biography says that he began to direct in 1964, and there is conspicuously a missing film in 1965. Still, it would be nice to see some more evidence...

Travancore originated from a misreading by the British when they first arrived in Thiruvithamkoor Kingdom [t̪iɾuʋid̪aːŋɡuːr], in what is now the Indian state of Kerala. The real meaning of the story is the origin of the formation of the universe. Asians believe that all things were created by the endless struggle of forces in the universe. However, that does not mean that Indians worship violence and war, but it explains that the universe would die if it remained in a state of inactivity.

This poem belongs to a genre that Vietnamese people often call "vè" (an onomatopoeic and almost meaningless word, it always begins every poem : Ve vẻ vè ve). It always rhymes and is repeated to help children practice their enunciation.

One of those really sweet Soviet cartoons that were made to encourage children to be kind.

By the way, I had to do some odd adjusting of the existing subtitles for the new video link. I'm going to detail the process below both as a reference for myself in the future, and to help others do the same if needed.

So, first I found two lines of dialogue near the beginning and the end that could be directly compared:
Line 1 at 01:29,500 in the old video is heard at 01:26,500 in the new video.
Line 2 at 05:19,500 in the old video is heard at 05:11,000 in the new video.

Assuming m = multiplier and o = offset, and converting the times to seconds, one gets two equations ("new" time is to the left of the equal sign):
86.5 = (m * 89.5) + o
311 = (m * 319.5) + o

Now to find the multiplier:
(311 - 86.5) = m * (319.5 - 89.5)
224.5 = m * 230
m = 224.5/230 = 0.9761 (roughly) = 24.4/25 (roughly)

And finally to find the offset (using either one of those two equations):
86.5 = (0.9761 * 89.5) + o
86.5 = 87.3 + o
o = -0.8 seconds

Just to double-check, I also found a place in the middle (at around 3:11 in the new video), and the dialogue matches there as well. Sometimes this method doesn't work very well because a bit of footage has been cut out in one of the versions (some theatres used to remove damaged sections, so the film would suddenly jump), but even then it's usually possible to get away with it.

So apparently the new video runs almost half a frame-per-second faster than the old one, although both are supposedly 25 frames per second. I have no idea what's going on here, but at least everything is synced now, without having to redo all the old subtitles (which I try to avoid if possible - I prefer to update them only for textual changes, not simply for a slightly differently-timed version of a film. Otherwise we'd have to update everything far too frequently).

Cynir tried to add a duplicate entry for this film; here are his plot summary and my comments below:
>There was a priest who killed his beloved dog just because the pet ate a piece of sausage. He immediately regretted it and decided to write on the fence in the hope of exorcising his guilt. That action took him traveling around the world. And when he returned home, he found a scene of devastation in his own house.

>The true meaning of the film is about the maturity in each person's perception, knowing how to put aside small benefits to do great things. However, it probably violated some principles of children's cinema censorship, and was therefore banned by the Soviet government. The film only really came to public attention during the Perestroyka, but unfortunately it remained shunned for decades. It wasn't until 2021 that an anonymous user scanned and uploaded the film to RuTracker with Soyuzmultfilm's approval. It immediately attracted the attention of the film community and led to a debate about its content.

I haven't found any support for the assertion that this cartoon was banned for the government; in fact the LostMedia wiki entry has some quotes from people mentioning that they saw it in a movie theatre at the time in a compilation with other animated shorts in the early 1980s (so certainly not during Perestroika). Although it is true that the film had not been released on home video or digitized since... but it is hardly unique in that.

Also, I've seen no evidence that that user who scanned and posted it (not to RuTracker initially) had Soyuzmultfilm's approval, though they haven't objected either... so who knows.

Nor have I noticed any debate about its content among the "film community" (at least if that means professionals), other than Yuriy Norshteyn praising it (although to be honest, I can no longer find that interview - perhaps I only imagined it?).

P.S. Cynir, I will add the Vietnamese title translation (Vị linh mục có một con chó) once the film has Vietnamese subtitles. ;)

I honestly did not expect how sweet this ended up being - this is feels like the earlier 1960s Estonian animations from Elbert Tuganov, not the other animation Estonia was producing in the 1980s. Perhaps the holiday season gave the directors the artistic license to be old-fashioned...