• Director(s):

    DOLGOROUKY (ALEXANDRE)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2002

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV

The word "Cossack" is linked to images of centaurs with fur hats and sabres galloping on the steppe, of bacchic dancers whirling and leaping on the rhythm of the balalaikas...The Cossacks have woven around themselves for centuries an extraordinary and thick cocoon of myth.

The legend is romantic and picturesque. When someone says the word "Cossack", many images come to mind: centaurs with fur hats and sabres galloping on the steppe; bacchic dancers whirling and leaping on the rhythm of the balalaikas and wearing their Eastern costumes with bright colours; horsemen whipping a crowd of people demonstrating on the streets of a Russian city...
Usually a legend's romantic version does not face the facts but sometimes the impact of reality is not that much destructive. Sometimes history does not weaken the legend, on the contrary it produces a more live and attractive tale than the myth itself. This is what happened to the Cossacks who have woven around themselves for centuries an extraordinary and thick cocoon of myth.
For generations, they have been peasants' heroes and poets'inspiration;
Nevertheless the importance of the Cossacks does not only lie in the fact that they inspired literature, they contributed to Russian national mythology as well. On several occasions, they played a capital role in history.