Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography
Pilot animation studio
present
We live in Russia.
The state emblem of Russia is a golden double-headed eagle, powerful and majestic.
On his chest we see St.George slaying the evil dragon with a silver lance.
The Russian flag has three colors:
white, blue and red.
Our capital is Moscow.
Russia is the biggest country in the world.
Many different nations live on its territory.
And each nation has its own customs and traditions.
Our closest neighbor is Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians also live in Russia.
The biggest river of the Ukraine is called the Dnieper.
Interestingly, the Dnieper, as well as the great Russian Volga river,
both originate in Russia, in the Valdai Hills.
The fertile Ukrainian soils
nurture fields of golden wheat,
and its orchards give bloom to delicious sour cherries.
In its gardens ripen juicy tomatoes
and enormous sweet watermelons.
If you throw such a watermelon into the Dnieper,
it will float across the Ukraine from north to south,
and reach the warm Black Sea.
Ukrainians love to sing and dance.
The melodious Ukrainian songs are famous all over the world.
And, of course, Ukrainians know and tell marvelous fairy tales.
Each of them is like a wonderful gem.
Mountain of Gems
"The Greedy Miller's Wife" A Ukrainian fairy tale
Once there lived in a village
a rich miller and his wife.
He had a very big farm!
His household was like a full cup.
The granary was crammed with grain.
But they were very greedy.
They wouldn't even share the snow in winter.
Their neighbor was a poor old woman.
"Giddy up!"
The only thing the old woman had
was her spotted hen, Pestrushka.
One day, the miller's wife became envious.
She wanted a spotted hen just like her neighbor's.
"At night one can't see anything!"
"Why did you put that here?!"
"Wife!"
The miller woke up in the morning,
but in his wife's place, he saw...!
"Ah?!!! Oh!!!"
"What will people say?! Disaster!"
Just then, the neighbor came by asking to borrow some grain.
The miller was at a loss.
He shouted: "No grain!
We haven't even got anything left for ourselves!"
"Cheep-cheep-cheep!"
"Cheep-cheep!"
"Cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep!"
Then the miller decided to go consult an experienced man,
the blacksmith!
The miller described his trouble
and asked for his help.
"Oh!"
The smith couldn't really help.
"Go to the cooper," he said,
"Maybe he will figure something out?"
The miller told the cooper of his trouble
and asked for his help.
"Oh!"
The miller didn't like this solution.
He could neither embrace nor kiss his wife!
Then the cooper advised him
to go to the very outskirts of the village, to the Gypsy woman.
Maybe she would figure out the cause of the trouble
and what to do about it.
"Things look bad," said the Gypsy.
"Your wife stole a spotted hen from an old lady.
Only one thing can save your wife and you as well!
If you do a kind deed for your neighbor
and she tells you the magic words:
...Thank you!"
"Oh!"
The old woman asked the blacksmith and the cooper
how she could repay their kindness.
"No need," they said.
"Well, thank you, kind people!"
"If you do a kind deed for your neighbor
and she tells you the magic words..."
The miller confessed
that his wife had stolen the hen.
He asked for forgiveness
and promised not to trouble her any more.
"Well," the old woman said, "it's good
of you to returned my beloved Petrushka.
May God be your judge!"
"Here, neighbor, have this rooster as a gift,
and if you need grain, you're always welcome."
The old lady rejoiced:
"Now I will have chicks, too!
Thank you, dear neighbor, THANK YOU!"
Since then the miller's wife never took something that wasn't hers.
And the miller never treated his neighbor badly.
A-ahhh!!!
screenplay, director Milana Fedoseyeva art director Igor Mednik artistic supervisor Mihail Aldashin
composer L. Zemlinskiy, sound V. Tarasov narrator Lev Durov, voice-actors Eduard Nazarov, Milana Fedoseyeva
animators Dmitriy Andreyev, Pavel Barkov, Yevgeniy Dudin, Aleksey Naumenkov, Milana Fedoseyeva, Leon Estrin
special effects Yevgeniy Dudin, Aleksey Naumenkov, production director Igor Gelashvili, producer I. Kaplichnaya
Intro: director Sergey Merinov, art director Eduard Belyayev,
artists Yu. Dashchinskaya, G. Golubeva animators N. Sokolova, S. Biryukov
camera/montage A. Puchnin, Yu. Melyohina
artistic council of project Eduard Nazarov, Aleksandr Tatarskiy, Mihail Aldashin, Vladimir Telegen, G. Zakolodyazhnyy
project supervisor Aleksandr Tatarskiy executive producer Igor Gelashvili
Filmed with financial support of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography
The End
Subs by Niffiwan (Jan 2024), partly using Eus's subs (May 2014) and those from the official channel (July 2014)