Historical feature film “Flame of Wrath” (1955)

Did you know that a series of scenes from the historical feature film “Flame of Wrath” (1955) based on drama “Forever Together” (author – Lubomyr Dmyterko) were filmed on the territory of the Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”?

That ideological and propaganda film was created before the so-called “300^th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia”. Tymofiy Levchuk was director of the picture, Borys Lyatoshynsky – its composer. Roles were played by Mykyta Ilchenko, Natalia Uzhviy, Oleksandr Vertynsky, Volodymyr Ignatenko, Mykhailo Zadniprovsky and others. The premier of the film was in July 1956.

In April 1955, Kyiv Feature Film Studio guaranteed that all scenery would be dismantled and all places temporarily adapted for filming would get their previous look.

The organization that coordinated film production activities on the territory of “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” Preserve, was Department of Architecture of Kyiv. It monitored works dealing with the completion of fence and wooden tower, dismantling masonry in the cannon embrasures of the fortress wall; construction of wooden decorative structures near the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin and walls near the Bell tower of the Far Caves; repainting lower tiers of the mentioned architectural monuments; construction of wooden decorative gates, walls and fences in the vicinity of the Church of the Savior at Berestove.

The filming was completed in early July 1955. However, back in November, the cannon embrasures remained dismantled, while the walls of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin and the Bell tower of the Far Caves were “spoiled with black paint”.

Anna Yanenko

Captions to the illustrations:
1. Announcement of the new feature film “Flame of Wrath” in the newspaper columns of 1956.
2. View of the Bell Tower and the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Far Caves of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. 1950s (From the Fund collection of the National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”, inv. № KPL-F-4683)