Master of the Ship. Bayhorod

The “Non-Canonical Canon” series is a way to talk about those we did not know, whose texts we read without understanding the context of their time. It brings together a wide range of Ukrainian authors and their works. Each text is accompanied by reading guides by Ukrainian literary scholars.

Master of the Ship is based on real events and real prototypes. The story reflects the artistic bohemia of the time: filmmaker Oleksandr Dovzhenko, film studio director Pavlo Nechesa, artist and architect Vasyl Krychevskyi. It is a story of creativity, love, the turbulent emergence of cinema and life in early 20th-century Odesa.

The novella Bayhorod has a completely different atmosphere, though equally cinematic. Anarchists approach the city in battle, while its inhabitants prepare to resist. Love against the backdrop of war, the urgency of living in the present and a deep connection to the land and what one believes in — even at the cost of life.