Film: "The Guide" (2014)

• Event Date: Monday, October 21, 2024
• Time: 5:00 pm–7:15 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free

• Film

Join the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center for a screening of The Guide (2014) as part of the Stand With Ukraine Through Film (external link) Initiative. This screening is free and open to the public.

Ukrainian with English subtitles / 2 hours, 2 minutes

The film screening will be followed by a discussion with Olha Khometa (Assistant Professor, Slavic Languages & Literatures).

This screening is cosponsored by the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures and the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures.

Download Event Flyer (PDF)

Film Synopsis

Early 1930s. Peter is a ten-year-old boy in the midst of turbulent Soviet Ukraine. His father, an American engineer, is killed for obtaining secret documents about the repressions, which now are hidden in Peter’s book. The boy flees from the police with a blind kobzar (Ukrainian folk minstrel), Ivan Kocherga. Ivan does everything to help his young guide to grow up and survive with a kind and clear soul that will not be hardened by what his eyes have seen. He tells his young guide elaborate stories that make him believe there can be a different reality from what he sees around him. We are challenged to admit the blind kobzar may see the world with greater clarity than those with perfect eyes.