Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine
Ukranimafilm
Based on a poem by Daniil Kharms
IT WAS SUMMER
It was summer. The sun was shining.
It was truly a hot day.
In the garden hung a hammock,
and in the hammock lay a little boy
named Plato.
He swayed and squinted at the sun.
Suddenly, something peeked out from behind a bush...
and vanished again.
Plato wanted to see what it was,
but getting out of the hammock was difficult.
Something again peeked out from behind the bush
and again vanished.
"It must be our cat, Eugenia."
Indeed,
a cat did emerge from behind the bush.
But it wasn't Eugenia.
Eugenia was gray,
with white spots.
But this one was all gray
with no spots.
"When did we get a cat like that?"
The cat was wearing glasses.
Furthermore, it held a
small pipe in its mouth and was smoking it.
Upon seeing Plato,
it took the pipe out of its mouth
and said:
Excuse me, please.
Do you know where Plato lives?
That's me.
Ah, it's you!
In that case,
follow me behind that bush -
there's a certain someone waiting for you there.
Behind the bush, on one leg,
stood a heron.
"Cancel the handshake,"
said the cat,
"Don't you dare do that.
If you want to introduce yourself,
shake feet instead."
"There, now we've introduced ourselves,"
said the cat.
"Now let's be off."
"Where to?"
But the heron had already grabbed him by the collar with its beak
and was beginning to rise into the air.
"Let me go!"
"You're talking nonsense,"
said the cat.
"If we let you go,
you'll fall and crash."
"Where are we going?"
"Over there."
Across the sky fly balloons,
They fly across, they fly,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And patter as they fly,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And people wave at them,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And folks wave at them with their hats,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And folks wave at them with their forks,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And folks wave at them with their buns,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And folks wave at them with their cats,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And folks wave at them with their brooms!
Across the sky fly balloons,
And folks wave at them with their lamps,
Across the sky fly balloons,
While people stand below,
Across the sky fly balloons,
They glisten and patter,
Across the sky fly balloons,
And people patter, too!
"Save me!"
"Silence!"
shouted the heron, opening its beak wide.
"He's falling! Catch him!"
Plato heard the cat's voice above him.
screenwriter & director Masha Medvid
art director Serhiy Mindlin
music Serhiy Stepanenko
camera Anatoliy Havrylov
arrangement Yernest Hrann
sound Lyudmyla Roman
animation Masha Medvid
art Maryna Olshevska, Olena Korotkevych, Nataliya Tarabarova, Nataliya Lysenko,
Tetyana Suliz, Natalya Hmelevska, Vanda Litvin
assistants Olena Korotkevich, Vlad Kostetskyy
script editor Svitlana Kutsenko
montage Yuna Srebnytska
voices Yuriy Kovalenko
Sung by the boys' duet of "Film Plus" studio (Kostyantyn Panchenko, Yernest Grann) under the baton of Myhaylo Kruchiyevskyy
production director Vyacheslav Kilinskyy
The End Subs by Eus (2025.10), rev. Niffiwan (2026.07)