The Guide (2014)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A testimony. this is the basic meaning of this admirable film. a blind man. a boy. Ukraine in the "30's. the geography of a world under dictatorship. and great cinematography. it is enough for describe a film escaping from the circle of worlds. because it is not exactly the film of a story. but a bitter remember. about a society. about a gray past. about a blind man. and a boy. in middle of embroidery of symbols.

The Guide - one of the best Ukrainian movies ever. Must watch film, to understand current events in Ukraine. (Maidan 2014) History repeats itself, especially since Russian government has not changed it's policy toward Ukrainian nation. Based on Historical facts the movie portrays how Soviet/Russian government had always wanted to destroy Ukrainian identity,culture and its people. The movie is set in early 1930 Kharkiv, beginning of planed mass starvation (10 million Ukrainian civilians) by Josef Stalin, called Holodomor. It also teaches us about Ukrainian heroes, legendary Kobzars, spiritual leaders of Ukrainian nation. In addition to a powerful story that the movie tells, filming, acting and directing is at highest level of filmography.

After creation of Soviet Union the cultures of all nations except Russians were oppressed here. Many cultural figures of Ukraine (writers, poets, scientists, theater and movie directors, actors, painters, musicians, folk artists, etc) undesirable for Soviet regime were executed or exiled to Siberia on the hard physical works, especially during the 1930s (it is known as Executed Renaissance). Among such figures were bandurists, the folk musicians who played on the bandura (Ukrainian folk string instrument) and sign mainly the patriotic sad ballads about cossacks, the Ukrainian steppe warriors of the 15-19 centuries.Main plot of this movie is a story of a blind wondering bandurist Ivan Kocherga in 1932-1933. Accidentally he gives some help to American boy Peter, whose father was killed by Soviet special services because of some secret documents, and takes him as sighted person – the guide.Blind bandurist and his young guide are traveling in Eastern Ukraine among the beautiful landscapes and witnessing repressions of Ukrainian people by Soviet regime.This movie is excellently visualized, which is combined with great music, including numerous Ukrainian folk songs.It is clearly the best movie about Ukrainian culture since famous "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (1965) of Sergei Parajanov and definitely the best one that was filmed in independent Ukraine so far.

This film's background is the Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s. It is a story of a 10 year old boy who is separated from his American father after the father is assassinated by Soviet NKVD agents for possessing documentation that reveal the atrocities that were being committed by the ruling communist party in Russia/Soviet Union. Millions of people were perishing from the forced famine that the Soviet government enforced to collectivize the farming community. The plot revolves around the boy's attempt to survive in Ukraine and get back to his home in the United States. He is aided by a blind minstrel (Kobzar). The story is a heart wrenching view of life under the Russian/Soviet communist dictatorship. The scenery is beautiful, the plot is mesmerizing and the acting is superb. I give it 10 stars.ZJ Kossak