Cossacks / Yak kozaky…
1967-1995
Ukrainian SSR, Ukraine,
Kyivnaukfilm / Ukranimafilm
Volodymyr Dakhno
Hrai, Oko, and Tur are a trio of brave Cossacks who always find something adventurous to do during their downtime. Whether it’s cooking kulish, playing soccer or hockey, rescuing friends from captivity, defeating pirates, freeing hostages, helping musketeers, challenging Greek gods and Ukrainian mythical creatures, meeting aliens, or traveling around the world—they’re always up for an adventure.
These vibrant adventures of the Cossacks are featured in the nine-episode animated series Cossacks, which director Volodymyr Dakhno, a native of Zaporizhzhia, devoted twenty-eight years of his life to creating. The first cartoon of this now-classic animated saga was completed in 1967, and the last one in 1995.
Despite being based on Ukrainian folklore, this dynamic animated series, created almost without dialogues or captions, successfully traveled to international festivals, winning the hearts of many animation enthusiasts. Eventually, Volodymyr Dakhno was honored with the Shevchenko Award, and Cossacks rightfully became a hallmark of domestic animation and true icons of Ukrainian pop culture.
For more than half a century, the series of animated films about the Cossacks has been a kind of audiovisual code that resonates with the hearts of Ukrainians. If Walt Disney’s animation embodies the American childhood world, then Volodymyr Dakhno’s Cossacks embody the Ukrainian one.
