The name of film was taken from Mykola Hohol's famous tales collection. The story chosen by Aleksandr Rou exist originally in that collection under the name of "Evening before Christmas".
The tale is beautifully made to show the amazing verity of traditions in culture in the middle between Europe and Eastern part of the world. How does people managed to have fun, love, laugh and be open to each other as well as to cherish the holiday's sacred meaning . And it is obvious how Hohol wanted to show it in the best light he imagined it to be while reading story-letters from his Ukraine - rooting mother.
Disappointment hit me hard when I took a look on the most funny moments of the tale filmed by Aleksandr Rou and found it made up disgusting. So than you can't normally relate yourself to most of the characters. Maybe that is why no empathy towards characters was born in me. Speaking about actors - none of the filmed personalities hadn't found their piece of fame through the life of their . The visual part of the movie correspondingly to the era it was filmed in - nothing special behalf a Devil and man who manipulates varenyky with the help of mindforce.
Director knows how to work with hyperbola. It goes out of the picture that Ukrainians are drinking 24/7 , loud, rude people who are always hungry. It grew into nowadays stereotypes.
To sump I would rather recommend to watch it without presumption that all depicted is true but to enjoy the tradition. As for me it interesting to compare how my homeland was seen by land over the border and how I was hearing and feeling it was.
