Kievnauchfilm (subtitles by Niffiwan)
Fiction Animation Division
Under Lord Stefan,
Prince of Transylvania, there lived the two Cossacks, Ivan and Petro.
King Stefan campaigned against a Turkish pasha, and proclaimed
that if some brave man could be found who'd bring him that pasha dead or alive,
he would pay him alone as much as he paid his whole army.
Ivan caught the pasha, took the king's reward,
and divided it equally with Petro on that very day.
Petro could not bear that Ivan had been so honoured by the king,
and hid deep in his soul a lust for vengeance.
The two knights were journeying to the lands granted by the king,
beyond the Carpathians.
Between the mountains drops a chasm, and the path twists just above it.
Ivan's horse cautiously stepped forward...
Petro, riding near, trembled and caught his breath with joy.
Petro glanced around, and pushed his sworn brother into the chasm.
All his goods Petro took for himself, and began to live like a pasha.
And Petro died.
God summoned the souls of the two brothers, Petro and Ivan, for judgement.
"A great sinner is this man!" said God.
"Ivan! You choose his punishment!"
N.V.Gogol
Terrible Vengeance
Long did Ivan ponder, devising the punishment,
and finally, he said:
"Let it be, o God, that none of his descendants shall know happiness on earth."
"Let the last of his line be such a villain...
...as the world has not yet seen."
"Let it be, o Lord,
that after each of his evil deeds, his grandfathers and great-grandfathers
would find no peace in their graves,
and, suffering torment unknown to the world would rise from their eternal rest!"
Lullay, lullay, lullay.
Lullay, little son, lullay.
Grow up lively and without worry;
to Cossackdom bring glory...
"And when the hour comes in which that man's wickedness reaches its pinnacle,
raise me, o Lord,
from that chasm on my horse unto the highest peak...
...and let him come to me!"
"And let him come to me!
And I will hurl him from that peak into the deepest chasm,
and let all the corpses, his grandfathers and great- grandfathers, be drawn from all ends of the earth
to gnaw on him for the torments he caused them,
and forever may they gnaw on him.
But the Judas Petro: let him be unable to rise from the earth,
let him strain to gnaw as well,
but gnaw only upon himself.
That torment will be the most terrible for him,
for there is no greater torment for a man
than to desire vengeance,
and be denied vengeance.
"Terrible is the punishment that you have devised, o man," said God.
"Let it all be as you have said,
but you, too, shall sit forever there on that horse of yours,
and you shall not have the Kingdom of Heaven
while you sit there on that horse of yours."
Terrible Vengeance
Screenplay and director Mikhail Titov
Art director Nina Guz
Composer Vladimir Bystryakov
Cinematographer S.Maksimovich
Sound operator V.Shchigol
Animators D.Kovtanets, Alla Churikova
V.Vrublevskiy, Adolf Pedan N.Bondar, A.Karbovnichiy
Artists - L.Slyusarenko, M.Zhuravskaya, M.Maksimenko
Assistants L.Vrublevskaya, M.Chernerko
V.Kiseleva O.Rayenok
Singer M.Litvin
Editing L.Mokrousova
Script editor Svetlana Kutsenko
Production director Ivan Mazepa
The End
(C) Kiev Order of the Red Banner of Labour Popular-Science Film Studio - 1988