A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa
5.5
“I, Hetman Ivan Mazepa have declared this beautiful country an independent state... and for this I've received an eternal curse, an anathema, from the one who raped my land the worst of all — from Moscow Tsar Peter I.”
During an interesting era in the history of Eastern Europe when Russia, under Peter the Great, and Sweden, under King Charles XII, struggled for power, Ukraine was the pawn in the middle. In 1709, Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire, signed a pact with the Swedish king promising to support Sweden in its war against Russia provided that Ukraine was given its independence.
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Cast
22 people
Bohdan Stupka
Hetman Mazepa
Known for
Iron & Blood: The Legend of Taras Bulba
Home
Вячеслав Довженко
Tsar Peter I
Lyudmila Efimenko
Liubov Kochubei
Also in
A Story of the Forest: Mavka
The Legend of Princess Olga
Nikita Dzhigurda
King Charles XII
Also in
Max and the Goose
30 Dates
Viacheslav Dovzhenko
Tsar Peter I
Known for
Cyborgs
Viktor Demertash
Judge General Kochubei
Also in
Captain Nemo
Swan Lake: The Zone
Serhii Romaniuk
Cossack Leleka
Also in
Bourgeois's Birthday
Metropolitan Andrey
Pylyp Illienko
Young Mazepa
Also in
Swan Lake: The Zone
A Story of the Forest: Mavka
Les Serdyuk
Hetman Samoilovych
Known for
Iron & Blood: The Legend of Taras Bulba
Ostap Stupka
Chancellor Orlyk
Known for
Easy
Evilenko
Mikhail Golubovich
Zaporozhian Leader Sirko
Also in
The Lost Letter
Mercedes Runs Away from the Chase
Oleh Drach
Prince Vasili Golitsyn
Known for
Mr. Jones
Yurii Illienko Director · Eleonora Summovskaya Editor Sergei Yakutovich Production designer
Budget $2M · United States release August 1, 2002 · Produced in Ukraine
Box office
Budget
$2,000,000
Production
Dovzhenko Film Studios
Production
Ukraine
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Молитва за гетьмана Мазепу
Original language
Ukrainian
Spoken on screen
Russian · Ukrainian
Release dates
Germany · February 15, 2002
Premiere · Berlin International Film Festival
United States · August 1, 2002
Premiere · Harvard University special screening
Ukraine · November 14, 2003
Theatrical
Ukraine
August 16, 2021 · Premiere · Odesa International Film Festival
October 21, 2025 · Premiere · Kyiv Critics' Week
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Some details come from TheTVDB.