Taras Bulba (2009 film)
Taras Bulba () is a historical drama film, based on the novel "Taras Bulba" by Nikolai Gogol. The movie was filmed on different locations in Ukraine such as Zaporizhia, Khotyn and Kamianets-Podilsky as well as in Poland. The official release was rescheduled several times; at first for the spring of 2008 but was finally released on April 2, 2009, to coincide with Gogol's bicentennial. The author's edition of 1842, expanded and rewritten, and considered more pro-Russian, was used for the film (this also being the text that is familiar to most readers). The  film DVD was released in the United States under the alternate title "The Conqueror" in 2010, and in the UK in 2011 as "Iron & Blood: The Legend of Taras Bulba". Controversies. The film was partly financed by the Russian Ministry of Culture and has been criticized in Ukraine for being a part of political propaganda "resembling leaflets for Putin". The director Vladimir Bortko has also stated that the movie aimed to show that "there is no separate Ukraine": This view is strongly opposed by nationalistic Ukrainians. In Russia there were fears that the movie would exacerbate historical disagreements with Ukraine . On April 7th 2022, in the midst of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the film was re-released to Russian cinemas. The film was also cautiously watched in Poland, where its possible anti-Polish character was widely discussed and its propagandist elements examined. This was enhanced by the fact that the filmmakers added some scenes depicting Polish brutality to the original plot by Gogol. The cover of the US DVD edition (titled "The Conqueror") has the tagline "Between Fire and the Sword Lies a Hero", a possible underhand reference to Polish historical fiction book and film "With Fire and  Sword" (Polish: Ogniem i mieczem).