Babylon XX 1979

In the early 1920s, Podolia’s village of Babylon sits under the banner of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, yet life clings to its late Tsarist echoes. The quiet is fractured when Klym Synytsia, Ivan Havryliuk, a Red Navy sailor and Babylon native, returns to push for an ambitious plan: to build a commune and reshape the town along new lines. He makes a dramatic statement in a public act of defiance, destroying the faded statues of the deposed Tsar Nicholas II and his family with grenades, and he shouts the battle cry of the Soviet marines, >Polundra!

Shortly after, the village’s gravedigger and self-styled philosopher, Fabian, Ivan Mykolaichuk, comes back to Babylon, watching the political currents swirl around him. Two brothers, Danko, Les Serdyuk, and Lukian, Yaroslav Havryliuk, weigh their own futures as they plan marriages and, in a practical move, entrust a local orphan, Darynka, Lyudmila Chinshevaya, with caring for their ailing mother. Darynka’s keen awareness pulls her into the center of the danger around her: she notices Bubela, Kostiantyn Stepankov, amassing weapons in a bid to resist a potential confiscation by the new rulers, and she warns Danko and Lukian.

Romance threads into the unrest as Danko pursues Malva, Lyubov Polishchuk, who harbors feelings for Fabian. Yet Fabian himself does not return her affections with the same fervor, fearing that closeness could threaten his sense of sanity in the volatile atmosphere. Malva, determined to join the commune, visits Synytsia at his former manor, only to be met with distrust and rejection. He sends Malva home with the poet Volodya Yavorskyi, Anatoli Khostikoyev, a gesture that sparks Danko’s jealousy and a hunger for revenge. As these personal alliances tighten, the village undergoes a deeper upheaval: Danko and Lukian contend with a looming sense of doom as Bubela’s wealth and militia presence grow more threatening.

Meanwhile, the tale of hidden wealth resurfaces with the discovery that a treasure lies buried beneath a pear tree in Babylon, and the ensuing dig up old Cossack weapons that change the balance of power in the village. Malva’s bond with Yavorskyi grows, a relationship that becomes a flashpoint when Bubela and his kulak militia strike, killing Yavorskyi and leaving Malva pregnant with his child. The romantic gesture intertwines with the political struggle, casting Malva between two worlds as the town teeters on the brink of open conflict.

On the eve of Bubela’s planned assault on Synytsia, Bubela demands a grave be prepared for himself by Fabian, a grim reminder of the murky intersections between personal fate and collective upheaval. The tension erupts on Epiphany night, when the kulaks move to seize the communists, triggering a broader clash that spreads through Babylon. Danko throws in with the kulaks, while Lukian sides with the communists, and Bubela stirs the peasants to riot. Fabian works to hold the line, but the violence overwhelms the town. The skirmish reaches its breaking point as the kulaks retreat and Danko’s attempt to kill Malva inadvertently results in Fabian being struck down instead, underscoring the tragedy at the heart of a community torn by ideology, loyalty, and love.