This film, inspired by a Pushkin poem, gives a completely different interpretation of the Cossack legend, a rather new vision of the Mazepa, governor of Ukraine, founder of the first university, of schools and publishing companies.

At its beginnings, Russian cinema is strongly influenced by the presence of foreign companies such as Pathé. However, from 1907 on, the Tsar endows his Empire with a Russian film industry. The first films take their inspiration from historical themes and legends from literature.

This film’s argument comes from a famous opera by Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) titled Mazepa, created in 1884 in Moscow at the Bolchoi Theater. Tchaikovsky has inspired himself from the historical novel by Pushkin titled Poltava telling of the adventures and loves of Ivan Stepanovych Mazeppa, famous Cossack chief from the 18th century.

While the Tsar Peter the Great hopes to reassert his hold on the Cossacks, Mazeppa, the Ukrainian governor, lines up with Charles XII of Sweden in the war that opposes him to the Russian monarch. Sweden looses the battle in 1709 at Potlava. Mazeppa, considered a traitor to Russia, must flee. His destiny is a mine of inspiration for the romantic painters such as Géricault and the poets such as Victor Hugo or Lord Byron.

In 1908, Vassili Gontcharov writes the first script that recounts the exploits of a legendary Cossack, Stenka Razine. Drankov’s film is often considered to be the first of the kind. For that matter, Gontcharov is one of the first Russian directors to have acquired an international reputation.

Unfortunately, many of his films directed before the 1917 revolution have disappeared in the century’s turmoil.

The original music for this film was composed by Marc Perrone in 2008.