It seems that every Ukrainian creates his or her own image of Taras Shevchenko. Worldwide, nearly 1,100 memorials have portrayed the Ukrainian poet-artist as variously young or old, in folk attire or imperially slim, with furrowed brow or distant gaze. But eccentric? Humorous? Romantic?
Yet this was precisely the way director Aleksandr Denysenko intended to “humanize” the bard of Ukraine in his 2019 film “Taras: The Return,” which was screened at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on Sunday, February 16. To accommodate viewer interest, an additional showing was added.