Hryhorii Hrycher

Hryhorii Hrycher (also Cherikover; born Hryhorii Chervynskii) was a Ukrainian film director and screenwriter. His remaining films preserve a unique glimpse of a lost world, showing everyday life of Jewish small towns (shtetls) and neighborhoods in Ukraine in the times of massive political change. Hryhorii Chervynskii was born in Poltava in 1898, in a worker’s family. He received his education in Poltava, Kyiv and Moscow before starting a career in movies in 1924-1925, at VUFKU Studios. Hrycher’s first project was Oleksii Hranovskii’s «Jewish Happiness,» to which he co-wrote a screenplay. Two years later, Hrycher makes his directing debut with a spy comedy «Suspicious Luggage». It is considered lost, same as most of his subsequent VUFKU productions: «Wandering Stars» (1926, after Sholem Aleichem, screenplay by Isaac Babel), «The Fair at Sorochyntsi» (1927, after Nikolai Gogol), «On the Eve» (1929, after Aleksandr Kuprin, starring Amvrosii Buchma). One more adaptation of Sholem Aleichem’s short prose, «Through Tears,» hit the screens in 1929 and became Hrycher’s main international success. Somewhat sad and melancholic comedy feature was premiered in New York City on November 19, 1933, and was received enthusiastically. The only known surviving copy of «Through Tears» is an American one, re-edited and dubbed in Yiddish. Mykola Bazhan, an editor of «Kino» magazine at the time, wrote the screenplay for Hrycher’s first Ukrainfilm Studios production. «Suburban Quarters» (1930) de…