Original subtitles

An Ark-Film production

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of Russia

Before the battle, I want to tell you, my fellow men,

what our brotherhood is.

There have been comrades in other lands...

...but never any such fraternity as on our Russian soil.

To love as the Russian soul does,

to love not with the mind, but with all that God has given you,

all that is within you...

...no one can love in that way!

I know...

...baseness has now made its way into our land.

Many care only to own their grain and their droves of horses.

God only knows what customs they adopt.

They abhor their own language.

They care not to speak with their own countrymen.

They sell their neighbors as soulless cattle in the marketplace.

The favor of a foreign king,

not even of a king, but of a Polish magnate

who keeps his imperial boot pressed against their necks,

is dearer to them than their own brothers.

But inside the very meanest scoundrel, no matter who he is,

lies the heart of a Russian.

And it will stir again someday.

And then the wretched man will beat the floor with his hands

and grasp his head in despair, loudly cursing his vile life.

He will seek to redeem his disgraceful deeds,

no matter how painful it is.

May they all know what brotherhood means on Russian soil.

And if it has come to the point when such a man must die,

not one of them will have the chance to die in the right way, not one!

They would not have earned an honorable death,

for they are little men.

Charge!

BOGDAN STUPKA

Based on the tale by Nikolai Gogol

TARAS BULBA

the cast:

Lgor Petrenko Vladimir Vdovichenkov

Magdalena Meltsazh Lyubomiras Lautsyavichyus

Ada Rogovtseva

Mikhail Boyarsky

Sergei Dreiden

Yuri Belyayev

Les Serdyuk

Vladimir llyin

Boris Khmelnitsky

Alexander Dedyushko

Pyotr Zaichenko

Ivan Krasko

Matlyuba Alimova

Ostap Stupka

Mikhail Zhuravsky

Sound: Natalya Avanesova

Editor: Leda Semyonova

Costume design: Ekaterina Shapkaits

Makeup artist: Vadim Khalaimov

Set design: Vladimir Svetozarov

Sergei Yakutovich

Marina Nikolayeva

Original music by Igor Kornelyuk

Director of photography Dmitry Mass R.G.C.

Executive producer Alexander Potemkin

Produced by: Anton Zlatopolsky Ruben Dishdishyan

Written and directed by Vladimir Bortko

Hello there, noble Sirs.

- How's life, Brother? - Good.

Hello there.

Unbridle her. Put the sacks away.

Turn around, Son. Turn around.

How ridiculous you look! Look at you!

Is that a priest's cassock you're wearing?

What a long skirt.

You won't be able to run without tripping over yourself.

Don't make fun of me, Father.

Look how touchy you are!

Why shouldn't I laugh?

Even though you're my father, I'll thrash you if you laugh.

What? Thrash your father?

Yes, even my father.

I don't care who insults me, I'll spare no one.

And how do you want to fight me? With your fists, eh?

Any way at all.

Well, come on!

Come on, then!

Come on, with your fists!

Come on!

Good boy!

Good boy! By God, very good!

The old man has gone mad!

We haven't seen our children for over a year,

and he's pummeling them!

He fights well.

Very well, indeed.

He'll make a good Cossack.

Welcome home, my boy!

Let us greet each other.

Good lad.

See that you fight everyone else as you've fought me.

Don't go soft on anyone.

Why are you standing there with your arms dangling, like a dummy?

Don't you also want to give me a beating?

Why should a child want to beat his own father?

I see you've been coddled.

Don't listen to your mother, my son.

She's a woman. She doesn't understand anything.

What do you want with pampering?

Your pampering is an open field and a good horse.

That's what it is!

Do you see this saber?

This land is your mother!

Best of all, I'll send you to Zaporozhye next week.

That's where you'll find real science.

Only there will you acquire sense.

Only there!

I'll wager the monks didn't allow you so much as a whiff of vodka.

Confess now, lads.

They lash you with fresh birch switches

and whatever else they can get their hands on.

No good in recalling the past, Father. It's all over and done with.

Just let 'em try it now!

Just let any Tatar come along now,

he'll learn what a Cossack's sword is like.

Good, my son.

By God, good.

When it comes to that, I'll go with you!

By God, I will.

Why the hell should I stay here?

To sow the fields with buckwheat?

To tend sheep and swine? To fondle my wife?

Devil take it all!

I'm a Cossack! I'll have none of it!

So what if there's no war?

I'll go with you to Zaporozhye to carouse.

What enemy can we battle here?

What's this house to us? What do we want with all this?

Dmitro, I put you in charge, you hear?

Of course I do.

And if I send you word from the Sich, ride forth with a regiment.

Demid, don't forget to put the best wheat in the manger.

Take Monk, Eagle, Rowdy.

Bulba was terribly headstrong.

He was one of those characters who could arise

only in the turbulent 16th century,

when the Cossackdom was instituted...

a free, wild manifestation of Russian nature.

A most remarkable expression of Russian strength.

Dire necessity wrested it from the bosom of the people.

I am ready!

Out of the way!

Let go!

Giddyup!

My darling sons!

What will become of you? What awaits you?

What if a Tatar cuts off your heads in the very first battle?

And I won't know where your bodies lay...

...mangled and abandoned.

All ready now there, Sons?

No time to waste.

Now we must all sit down together

before the journey, according to our Christian custom.

Now, Mother, bless your children.

Pray to God that they may fight bravely,

always uphold knightly honor,

always defend the faith of Christ.

And if not...

...that they may perish...

...and their breath be no longer in the world.

May the Mother of God protect you.

Forget not your mother, my sons.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Sich, our motherland!

The Sich... here it is...

that nest from which all those men, strong and proud as lions, came forth,

whence poured forth liberty and the Cossacks,

all over Ukraine.

Everyone who came here

forgot everything else that had interested him.

He gave himself up to freedom and good fellowship of men like himself,

those who had neither relatives nor home nor family,

save the free sky and the eternal feast of their souls.

Here it is... the Sich!

Play faster, musicians!

Spare not vodka for these men, Foma!

Take off your coat, Vertikhvist!

I can't!

Why not?

It's just the way I am! Whatever I take off, I'll drink up!

Go have fun, Mosiy! I bought your freedom.

Now you owe no one!

Health to you, Kirdyaga!

I see you've brought your sons, Taras.

You stinking dog.

He killed his comrade like a dog, in a drunken rage, for nothing.

Pity he was a Cossack.

And what if he wasn't a Cossack?

A simple man? A Pole?

Wouldn't it be a pity?

Let the Poles have pity on him. They have no pity on us.

What about the courts, Roman law?

Here we have our own laws.

And what if we were born elsewhere?

I don't know.

I remember walking along the road with you when we were kids.

You were crying and jumping up and down.

The dust on the road was burning you.

I picked you up.

I walked along the road, and I had a feeling

that the land was keeping my feet warm, not the dust.

My land.

As for Latin, even while at the Academy...

It's not for me. Veni, vidi...

What comes next?

Vici... "I came, I saw, I conquered. "

No, not conquered. It isn't for us. That's not our land.

Come on.

There she is.

Where?

There, in the first row. Next to her father.

Let's go.

How dare you enter the church, you swine!

What did you say?

Taras has a good son, eh, boys?

What can you do?

Nothing, eh?

Now let him stand here, and I'll shoot.

Perhaps tomorrow might be better, Shilo.

He shot, didn't he? Let's see just how brave he is.

Where are you going, Taras?

Hello, Father!

Hello!

Take me into the Sich!

- Do you believe in Christ? - I do.

Greetings, Ataman.

Hello, Taras.

Do you believe in the Holy Trinity?

I do, Father.

Have a seat.

Then cross yourself.

All right. Enter whichever barrack you like.

Thank you, Father.

Well, then, Ataman?

It's time for the Cossacks to ride out.

Nowhere to go.

What do you mean by "nowhere"?

We can make a raid on the Turks or the Tatars.

It's impossible to raid either the Turks or the Tatars.

How so, "impossible"?

We've promised peace to the Sultan.

You, Sultan, Turkish devil...

...Satan's brother...

...and Lucifer's own secretary!

What the hell kind of knight are you,

when you couldn't slay a hedgehog with your bare ass?!

We have no fear of your army!

By land and by sea, we will battle you!

You Babylonian lowlife...

...destroyer of Jerusalem!

Now we shall conclude,

for we don't know the date and don't have a calendar.

The day's the same here as it is over there.

Kiss...

Kiss...

...my ass!

Send the letter to the Sultan, scribe!

We can't send this letter to the Sultan.

Why not?

Ataman won't let us.

Why not?

He's made peace with the Sultan.

Damn him!

- What is your wish, noble Sirs? - Give up your mace!

We'll have no more of you, you son of the Devil!

Give up your mace and leave!

Whom do you elect as Ataman?

Elect Kukubenko!

We don't want Kukubenko!

He's too young!

Still wet behind the ears!

Let Shilo be Ataman!

None of your Shilo!

Nice sort of a Cossack he is, steals like a Tatar!

To hell with Shilo!

Yell out "Kirdyaga".

Yell out "Kirdyaga"! Kirdyaga!

Kirdyaga! Give us Kirdyaga! Kirdyaga!

Accept it!

Accept it!

Earth the powerful helps you.

The vodka's on me, boys!

Where are you coming from?

From a misfortune.

Our Cossack strength is being vainly wasted!

There is no war!

Our leaders have become lazy! Their eyes are swollen shut with fat!

Permit me to address you, Ataman.

Speak! What have you come with?

With bad news.

What sort of bad news?

Your regiment is no more, Colonel.

Your village is no more, and your horses, and your servants.

The Poles have destroyed all of it.

And your wife is no more, Taras.

She's been murdered.

We hoped to bring her to you alive, though wounded.

We failed.

Allow me, noble Sirs, to address you, as well.

Speak.

Speak!

Speak! Don't stall, you dog!

I am here to ask you all one thing.

Have you heard what's been happening

in the Hetman's dominions?

- What's happening there? - Tell us what you know!

Tell us, you son of a dog!

That which no man born and christened has ever yet seen.

Things have come to such a pass

that our holy churches are no longer ours!

How so, not ours?

How so?

They are leased to the Jews now.

Our Christian churches are leased to the Jews?!

If they're not paid first, there can be no service!

Such are the deeds taking place now in Ukraine.

Catholic priests ride around all over Ukraine in carts!

The worst is that they harness to them not horses,

but Orthodox Christians!

That is what has come to pass in Ukraine!

And you sit here, reveling in Zaporozhye,

and you hear nothing that is going on in the world.

Stop! Stop!

What have you been doing all the while?

Had you no sabers?

How did you come to permit such lawlessness?

You ought to have tried to fight 50,000 Poles alone!

And there's more shameful news.

There were also dogs among us who had already taken on their faith.

And your Hetman and your colonels, what did they do?

What did our colonels do?

God save us from such deeds as those of our colonels.

Our Hetman, roasted like a brazen ox, now lies in Warsaw!

In Warsaw?

And the hands and heads of our colonels

are being carried to the fairs.

That's what our colonels did.

What? The papists harness Orthodox Christians?

How has this been permitted on Russian soil?

Cursed unbelievers!

They have done this to the Hetman and the Atamans?

Nay, it shall not be!

It shall not be!

Hang all Jewish tavern keepers!

Let's drink!

Don't leave anything!

Stop! You'll break your saber!

Help me, fellow.

They are not of us!

They are not of us!

They are not of us!

Stop!

Stop, I said!

Most illustrious Lord!

Most illustrious Lord! Most illustrious Lord!

Such lords never were seen before!

By God, such brave, kind lords I have never seen!

- By God, never before! - Don't listen to him.

Those men are not of us at all, those who take leases in Ukraine.

They are not even Jews! Only the Devil knows what they are!

They're only fit to spit upon and cast aside, to the Devil!

I used to know your late brother, Dorosha.

I gave him 800 coins so he could ransom himself from the Turks.

Come here!

Stop squealing!

Stop!

You knew my brother?

God as my witness, I knew him.

He was a magnanimous nobleman.

What's your name?

Yankel.

All right.

Go your own way, lads.

And you go, too.

Don't tempt me.

We, the elders, have decided to march on Poland!

To avenge the sorrow, tears, and death,

the injury and disgrace to our faith!

What is the will of the Zaporozhian army?

- Agreed! - Agreed!

May the Lord bless you!

May the Lord bless you!

May the Lord bless you!

May the Lord bless you!

May the Lord bless you!

May the Lord bless you!

May the Lord bless you!

Farewell, the Sich, our mother! May God preserve you!

Fool, why are you sitting here?

Do you want to be shot like a sparrow?

Let the noble Lord not tell anyone. This is my cart.

I'm carrying necessary wares for the Cossacks,

at a lower price than any Jew has ever sold before.

By God, I swear!

Quite a spirit you have!

All southwest Poland speedily became a fearful prey.

Everywhere the rumor flew: "Zaporo zhtsi are coming!"

All who could flee, fled; all rose up and scattered.

Such was the manner of that lawless, reckless age.

Well, what do you have to say?

Dear Sir! I alone escaped.

Are there many of them?

Serfs! Scum! Runaway slaves!

Maybe they're not all like that.

You don't know them.

Are you afraid?

I am not afraid of anyone, my daughter.

I am afraid only for you.

But mark my word, we will defeat and punish them harshly.

Charge!

Prepare to fire!

Enough, my dear. You should leave.

We will teach them a lesson.

This is no place for you.

Forward!

Elzhbeta!

Fire!

To the tower!

Charge!

Hand over the pistol!

Shoot!

Hook, quickly!

Pistol!

Hold on!

Come on! Charge!

So many stones, oh!

I'm here!

Andriy!

I'm holding you!

Oh, God!

Come on, we need fire!

Signal a retreat.

The Cossacks' force will be lost in vain here.

It's useless, Comrades. We must retreat.

May God strike me dead if we don't clean them out of that city.

Let them all perish of hunger, the dogs!

We'll put this city under siege! No one will come out alive!

Help me undress, and you may go.

Very well, my Lady.

Ah... Oh, well.

Good night.

Good night.

What is wrong, my Lady?

What's wrong?

Nothing. I pricked myself with a pin.

Did you see me?

Yes.

An odd way to introduce oneself.

You must leave!

Who's that?

Who are you?

I think I've seen you before.

Yes. In Kiev.

In Kiev?

You're the Tatar woman,

the handmaid of the Governor's daughter!

Quiet! Quiet!

Tell me, where is she? Is she alive?

She's here in the city.

In the city?

Why is she in the city?

Because the old Lord himself is here.

He's been the Governor of Dubno.

Is she married?

Tell me!

She's had nothing to eat in two days.

What?

No one has any bread. The people are eating earth.

She said, "Go and tell the Knight to come to me if he remembers me,

and if he doesn't, ask for bread for my mother.

He has a mother, too. For her sake. "

My mother was killed by Poles.

But you're here. How did you come here?

By an underground passage.

There's an underground passage?

Yes.

Come with me.

A bit of bread, in the name of God!

Hold on.

Stay here by the wagon.

No. Sit down.

Everyone's asleep. You won't be seen.

I'll be back in a moment.

Stop the damned Pole!

Let's go!

Andriy!

There's a woman with you.

I'll give you a thrashing when I get up.

Women will lead you to no good. Mark my words.

Come on!

Quick! Quick!

Follow me.

We're starving.

Everything's been eaten... horses, dogs, cats.

Not even a mouse can be found.

How do you imagine of defending the city?

The Governor would have surrendered.

But we learned yesterday

that a Colonel is bringing his men from Warsaw.

Come.

God alone can reward you...

...not I, a weak woman.

That's enough.

Eat no more.

You haven't eaten in so long that bread will be poison for you.

Tsarina!

What do you wish?

What do you need? Command me!

Ask me to do the impossible, and I will do it.

Tell me to do what man cannot, and I will find a way.

Why are you so sad?

Why are you so sad?

What a grim executioner is fate.

I led a life of abundance and luxury. But to what end?

So that I might die a cruel death,

such as not even the lowest beggar in the kingdom dies?

That I might see love such as I had never known before?

Forgive my sin, Holy Mother of God!

You shall not die.

You shall not die!

I swear it on my own life, you shall not die!

If neither strength nor prayer shall avert death, we'll die together.

I will die before you.

Only in death shall they part us.

Don't deceive me and yourself, Knight.

It is impossible for you to love me.

Your father, your comrades, your fatherland call you.

And we are your enemies.

And what are my father, my comrades, my fatherland to me?

As far as I'm concerned, I have no one! No one!

Who said that my fatherland is Ukraine?

Who gave it to me as my country?

Our fatherland is what our soul longs for,

that which is dearest of all to it.

Here is my home!

You are my home!

And this home I shall bear deep in my heart.

For as long as I live, I will bear it.

And let any of the Cossacks try to tear it out.

I will do all that I must to keep this home... this land.

Have you seen Andriy?

No.

- Perhaps he's been captured? - No, not Andriy.

He isn't among the dead.

Inspect everything.

Witness, noble Brothers, what happened last night.

They were all dead drunk in the Pereyaslav barracks!

No wonder half of them have been killed and the other half captured!

The enemy has put us to shame!

Wait, Father!

That's not fair to all of our Christian army.

The Cossacks would have been deserving of death

had they gotten drunk on the march, during war or heavy labor.

We had been idling in camp, loitering in vain before the city.

It was not a fast or any other time of Christian abstinence.

Such men were bound to get drunk from sheer boredom.

Bulba's eldest son has spoken well!

There's no sin in that.

We'd better show them what it is to attack innocent people.

That's right!

We beat them before, we'll beat them again.

They won't know what hit them!

Colonel! Sir! Noble Lord!

I've been in the city.

What enemy took you there?

When I heard the uproar, and the Cossacks began to fire,

I ran to the gates of the city,

just as the Polish army was passing through.

And at the head of the file was Cornet Golyandovich.

He's owed me a hundred ducats for two years.

I ran after him to claim the debt, and so I entered the city.

So you entered the city and wanted him to settle the debt?

He didn't order you to be hanged like a dog?

He wanted to, I swear to God.

They'd already thrown a rope around my neck.

But I pleaded with him, promising to lend him more.

For the Cornet has not a ducat in his pocket.

That's why he has not been to the Sejm.

What did you do in the city? Did you see any of ours?

Certainly. Itsok and Samuel and Rakhum.

To hell with them! I'm asking you about our Zaporozhtsi.

Ah, our Zaporozhtsi!

I saw...

...Sir Andriy.

You saw Andriy?

How? Where did you see him?

In a dungeon? In a pit? Dishonored? Bound?

No! Who would dare to bind Sir Andriy?

He's so grand a Knight, by God. I hardly recognized him.

Gold on his shoulder straps, gold on his belt, gold on his cuffs.

Gold everywhere... around his chest, all gold!

The Governor gave him a horse worth two hundred ducats.

That's how it is.

Why has he put on strange garments?

He went over.

Went where?

Went to their side. He's completely theirs now.

You're lying, you swine!

Why should I lie?

Don't I know that a Jew will be hanged like a dog

if he lies to a noble Lord?

Then you're saying that he has betrayed his land and his faith?

I didn't say he betrayed anything. I just said he'd gone over to them.

You lie, you devil of a Jew!

Such a deed was never known in a Christian land!

You're mixed up!

May you spit on the grave of my mother and my father if I'm mixed up.

If the noble Lord wishes, I can even tell why he went over.

Why?

The Governor has a beautiful daughter.

Holy God, what a beauty!

He went over for her sake.

I questioned her Tatar maid.

The wedding will take place as soon as they have driven off the Cossacks.

Sir Andriy has promised to drive them off.

Why didn't you kill him on the spot, that bastard?

Why should I kill him? What's his crime?

He liked it better there, so he went there.

And you saw him in person?

His very face, by God!

He recognized me at once and said, "Yankel!"

What did he say?

"Tell my father, my brother, the Cossacks, tell everyone

that they are no longer my father, my brother, my comrades,

that I will fight them all, all!"

Get out of here, before I kill you! You Judas!

Trouble!

We have a trouble! Alert!

Trouble!

Alert!

He's wounded!

My Brothers! Thank God!

I thought I'd never find you.

I haven't left the saddle in five days.

What's wrong?

The Tatars have burned Mother Sich!

Everyone's been killed or captured.

I'm the only one who escaped.

Well, Brother. Let's hope we meet again.

Forgive me, Brother.

God will forgive you.

One more time...

...God will forgive you.

And a third time, forgive me.

God will forgive you.

They're leaving.

What does this mean?

Only half of them are leaving.

So they have lost half their strength.

Half the Cossacks have left for the Sich.

The other half remains.

Lords, this is our only hope.

Tomorrow we will defeat them and hang them.

Well said! Long live Mazovetsky!

Viva! Viva! Viva!

I treat you, my Brothers,

not because you have made me your Ataman,

nor for our parting from our comrades...

the present moment is different.

The deed before us will demand great effort

but result in great glory for the Cossacks!

So let us drink, before all else, to the holy Orthodox faith,

that the day may come at last...

...that it may be spread in the world...

...and everywhere there may be but one holy faith!

- To the faith! - To the faith!

To the faith!

Let us also drink to the Sich!

To the Sich!

That each year there may issue forth from it young lads,

each better, each finer than the other.

- To the Sich! - To the Sich!

And now a last toast.

Comrades!

To all the Christians living in the world!

- To Christians! - To Christians!

To Christians!

The Cossacks were thinking deeply.

Like eagles they gazed at their dark fate.

The plain will be covered with their white bones,

lavishly washed with their blood.

Yet, not a single magnanimous deed will be forgotten.

And the Cossacks' glory will not be lost.

The mandolin player, eloquent in spirit,

will utter ringing, mighty words of them.

And all who shall be born thereafter will speak of them.

For the word of power is borne afar, like a booming, brazen bell

with much pure silver in it,

that its clear sound may summon all to holy prayer.

Forward!

Keep them from regrouping!

Let all the barracks attack at once!

You won't get away, Poles!

A shame to leave such a costly weapon lying around.

I've killed seven Poles, but have not beheld such a weapon.

Die, you dog!

Long live Poland!

You stinking Pole!

Go!

The Ataman's been killed!

The Ataman's been killed!

Dimitrovich's been killed! We must elect a new Ataman!

I could be the new Ataman!

Any one of us could be the new one!

Forward! Follow me!

Here is our victory, Father!

No, the victory is not yet complete.

Your own comrades!

You devil's brat, you slay your own comrades!

Hey there, lads. Just lure him to the forest.

Lure him to the forest for me!

Stop!

Stop! Stop, Cossack!

Stop, Cossack!

Stop, I said!

Well, what are we going to do now?

Well, Son?

Did your Poles help you?

Is this how you betray your faith?

Betray your own?

Stand still!

Dismount from your horse!

Stand still and don't move!

I gave you life.

I will also kill you.

In what way weren't you a Cossack?

Tall of stature and black-browed, your face is that of a nobleman,

and your hand was strong in battle.

You have fallen short, behaved shamefully, like a vile dog!

Trouble, Ataman! The Cossacks are looking for you!

The Poles have been reinforced!

A fresh force has come to their rescue!

The Cossacks don't want to die without having seen you!

They want you to gaze upon them before the hour of death arrives!

Well, noble Sirs, is there yet powder in the flasks?

The Cossacks' force is not weakened, is it?

Are the Cossacks not yielding?

There is still powder in the flasks!

The Cossacks' force is not yet weakened!

The Cossacks do not yield!

I'm not sorry about parting with this world.

God grant to every man such an end!

May the Russian land be glorious!

May all our enemies perish! May our Russian land rejoice forever!

And his young spirit fled.

Angels took it by the arms and bore it to heaven.

There he will be well.

"Sit down at my right hand," Christ will say to him.

"You have not betrayed your comrades,

never committed a dishonorable act.

You preserved and defended my Church!"

Well, noble Sirs, is there yet powder in the flasks?

The Cossacks' force is not weakened, is it?

Are the Cossacks not yielding?

There is still powder in the flasks! The Cossacks' force is still strong!

The Cossacks do not yield!

Borodaty was one of the most valorous of the Cossacks.

He had accomplished a great deal,

but the most glorious was his expedition to Anatolian shores.

They had collected many riches and adornments.

For a long time afterwards, the bards celebrated the Cossacks' daring.

It seems to me, Brothers, I'm dying a fine death.

Seven have I hewn in pieces, nine have I pierced with my lance.

May the Russian land flourish forever!

Mosiy Shilo was a strong Cossack.

He had served as an Ataman on the sea,

and had undergone many vicissitudes.

The men would have elected him Ataman,

but he was a peculiar Cossack.

He drank away everything, was in debt to everyone in the Sich.

One night he carried off

a complete set of Cossack battle gear from a barrack,

and pawned it to a tavern keeper.

For this dishonorable act, he was bound to a post in a baz aar,

and a club was laid by his side so that everyone might strike him.

But no Cossack would raise his club against him,

remembering his former merits.

Such was the Cossack Mosiy Shilo.

Farewell, noble Brothers, my Comrades!

May the holy Russian Orthodox land stand forever!

And may it have eternal honor!

The Cossacks fought on.

Zadoro zhny has fallen. Ataman Nalivaiko has been slain.

And Pisarenko has been killed.

And the other Pisarenkos have also been killed.

But the Cossacks kept fighting with their last ounce of effort.

I thank God that it has been my destiny

to die before your eyes, Comrades!

May those who come after us live better than we lived.

May our Russian land, beloved of Christ, flourish forever!

How now, Brothers? Is there still powder in your flasks?

Your swords are not yet dulled?

Are the Cossacks' forces weary?

Have the Cossacks given way?

Our swords are still fit! The Cossacks' forces are not weary!

Fire!

Ostap, don't surrender!

Well done, Son, well done!

Ostap! Keep fighting!

I am with you!

Father!

Ostap!

Zaporo zhtsi were launching boats.

Soon Asia Minor will see

the Cossacks with their shaven heads and long manes.

It will see the turbans of its Mahometan inhabitants strewn,

like her innumerable flowers, over blood-soaked fields.

She will see many tarry Cossack garb

and muscular hands holding black whips.

They will sail merrily home afterwards.

A Turkish vessel will pursue them

and will scatter their fragile skiffs, like birds,

with a volley from its guns.

A third of them will sink into the depth of the sea,

but the rest will assemble

and gain the mouth of the Dnieper with 12 kegs full of sequins.

My son! My Ostap!

UMAN

Hear me, Yankel.

I saved your life.

Now it's your turn.

Do me a service.

If it's a service I can render, why not render it?

Don't give me any talk.

Take me to Warsaw.

To Warsaw? Why to Warsaw?

I must see him once more and say at least one word to him.

Say a word to whom?

To Ostap, to my son.

Hasn't the noble Lord heard...?

I know. They offer 2,000 ducats for my head.

I'll give you 5,000.

Here are 2,000 right now.

You'll have the rest when I return.

I don't believe the man from whom the Lord took these coins lived long.

I wouldn't have asked you.

I would have found my own way to Warsaw.

But I'm not tricky enough.

Harness up your cart right now and drive me to Warsaw!

Does the Lord think I can just harness a mare and say, "Giddyup!"?

Does the Lord think I can just take him without hiding him?

Well, hide me any way you like. Perhaps in an empty barrel?

A barrel? Every man will think the barrel contains vodka.

Well, let them think it's vodka!

The first Pole who sees it will make a beeline for it.

He'll drill a hole in it, and when he sees that nothing runs out,

he'll say, "A Jew wouldn't carry an empty barrel. Something's in it!

Seize the Jew, bind the Jew,

take away all his money, put the Jew in prison!"

Because everything that is evil is blamed on the Jew.

And everyone takes a Jew for a dog,

and they think, "He's not a man, because he is a Jew!"

Then take me on a devil, if you like. Just take me.

WARSAW

Colonel, we're in Warsaw!

What news? Were you successful?

Oh, dear Sir! It is impossible now, I swear to God!

Such vile people, to be spit upon.

Mordechai will tell you the same.

Mordechai has done what no other man in the world ever did.

But it wasn't God's will that it should be so.

Tomorrow they will all be executed.

Come with me.

I don't want to.

We must go.

I must.

That man there, my love,

with the axe and other tools, is the executioner.

He knows his trade well.

When he begins to break the bones, the cursed Cossack is still alive.

And when his head is cut off, he won't be able to eat or drink,

or even sing,

because, my dear, he will no longer have a head.

God grant that none of the heretics who stand here

may hear, wretches, how Christians suffer!

Let none of us utter a single word!

Well done, Son.

Well done, Son, well done.

Well done, Son.

Father! Where are you? Do you hear it?

I hear, my Son! I hear you!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

Run, quickly!

This is in memory of Ostap, you Polish swine!

Help her.

Help her, old hag.

Why won't you do anything? She's been suffering for three days.

Forgive me, gentlemen.

Let us continue.

The Cossacks, led by Ataman Vostrianitsa,

have defeated the royal Hetman Nikolai Pototzky at Polonnoye.

The only way to preserve our strength and honor

is to negotiate a truce,

although the Cossacks' elders headed by Colonel Taras Bulba

will not agree to it.

Enough, Lord Koznievsky.

We must unite the efforts of all Poland.

Gentlemen, we face grave danger.

These men are not human.

Please excuse me yet again.

What?

Her Ladyship has died.

What about the child?

The child is alive.

A boy.

Your Lordship! Bulba's men are by the river!

Report!

They are by the cliffs, on the Dniester.

We will be there by morning.

Forward!

There are so many of them.

Saddle up!

Push through! Together we'll cut our way through!

Follow me!

Come on!

To the Dniester!

Halt!

I have dropped my pipe. I won't let the cursed Poles have it.

Tie him up!

Damned old age!

Take the horse.

Burn him!

For everyone to see, burn him!

Set it afire!

Where are you going?

Go down the path on the left and leap in the water!

Or else you will die in vain!

Thank you, Father!

Shut his damned mouth!

Farewell, Comrades!

Come here again next spring and make merry!

So you've captured me, damned Poles!

The time will come when you shall learn

what the Russian Orthodox faith is like!

The peoples far and near are beginning to understand,

a Tsar shall arise from the Russian soil!

There will be no power in the world that shall not submit to him!

Can any people, flame, or power be found on Earth

capable of overpowering the Russian strength?

To the faith!

For our faith!

Subtitle Rip; TheHeLL