Mykhailo Illienko

Directing

Mykhailo Illienko

Born 1947-06-29 · Moscow, USSR

Mykhailo Herasymovych Illienko (Ukrainian: Миха́йло Гера́симович Іллє́нко; born 29 June 1947)[1] is a Ukrainian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is an Academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine (2017), an Honored Artist of Ukraine (2003), and a Laureate of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine (2007). Mykhailo Illienko was born on 29 June 1947, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. He graduated from the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in 1970. Since 1973, he has been a director at the Kyiv Dovzhenko Film Studio. Since 1997, he has been the organizer of the Open Night Film Festival. Since 2000, he has been the dean of the film faculty at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University. He is a member of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine. From April 2017 to November 2018, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Film Academy. In March 2022, he joined the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Acting credits

Business as Usual poster
6.0

Forty years old is a perfect age to change ones life. The hero makes a decision to quit the psychotherapist's cabinet, which he is sick and tired of and become a poet. To become a freelance artist. A trifle remained to cope with to persuade the wife.

Business as Usual

2013

The Eve of Ivan Kupalo poster
7.0

Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune.

The Eve of Ivan Kupalo

1968

Maksym Osa: The Gold of Werewolf poster
5.8

Ukraine - 1636. Someone has attacked a battalion of cossacks that were transporting the gold of the Polish king. A cossack - Maksym Osa - tries to find the missing gold, but soon becomes one of the main suspects.

Maksym Osa: The Gold of Werewolf

2022

Hit poster
NR

There are songs that kill. The authors of these songs have millions of lives on their hands. One such song is featured in the film. It is well known that even the deadliest poison, in microdoses, can save a life—but in doing so, it takes far more. This poison is wiping out generations.

Hit

2026

Wandering poster
NR

Young children go on adventures. Sometimes their imaginations take them far from home, and then suddenly, out of the blue, a child finds themselves alone in an unfamiliar world, on an unfamiliar street, surrounded by strangers. That’s a problem. But it doesn’t just happen to children.

Wandering

2026

The White Bird Marked with Black poster
6.0

A family struggles to survive in an area that was claimed as part of Rumania, Poland and Ukraine, all within a short span of time. When World War II comes, various family members choose different masters; some even choose to work for the Soviets. War, struggle, marriages, births, deaths--all these events punctuate the story of this large family.

The White Bird Marked with Black

1972

Genius poster
NR

Grandfather and grandson are playing a chess game. Which of them will turn out to be the genius of the game?

Genius

2021

Behind the camera

Fuchzhou poster
5.0

The action is set at the start of the twentieth century, between a village by the River Dnyepr and the coast of Florida. While the story has ironic, romantic and sometimes mystic angles, the bitter aspects of emigration from Ukraine to the United States become clearly visible.

Fuchzhou

1993

Fuchzhou poster
5.0

The action is set at the start of the twentieth century, between a village by the River Dnyepr and the coast of Florida. While the story has ironic, romantic and sometimes mystic angles, the bitter aspects of emigration from Ukraine to the United States become clearly visible.

Fuchzhou

1993

Voice poster
6.0

Mom and daughter after shopping in the supermarket go to the exit and the mother remembers that she forgot to buy buckwheat. While the daughter is waiting for her mother with shopping, she hears a voice that reminds the child that her father is at war and that he loves buckwheat. A girl who doesn't like buckwheat tells her mother that she wants to try it again.

Voice

2017

Voice poster
6.0

Mom and daughter after shopping in the supermarket go to the exit and the mother remembers that she forgot to buy buckwheat. While the daughter is waiting for her mother with shopping, she hears a voice that reminds the child that her father is at war and that he loves buckwheat. A girl who doesn't like buckwheat tells her mother that she wants to try it again.

Voice

2017

Elevator poster
NR

Easter. Staircase. The guy is waiting for the elevator, but time and time again misses and does not come. Until the elevator stops, the door opens, and there she is.

Elevator

2017

Elevator poster
NR

Easter. Staircase. The guy is waiting for the elevator, but time and time again misses and does not come. Until the elevator stops, the door opens, and there she is.

Elevator

2017

The Seventh Route poster
6.0

The film takes place in Kyiv during the day. Daniel Pritulyak, serving foreigners as guide, invents a route for the Americans on the life of an obscure but talented poet Danila Pritulyak.

The Seventh Route

1997

The Seventh Route poster
6.0

The film takes place in Kyiv during the day. Daniel Pritulyak, serving foreigners as guide, invents a route for the Americans on the life of an obscure but talented poet Danila Pritulyak.

The Seventh Route

1997

Toloka poster
6.2

There is a ballad written by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko called “That Catherine's hut is on the hill...". It is about a rescue of Catherine's lover, whom she saves by posing him as her brother. This story, as a parable, flies throughout Ukraine's history and reconstructs its dramatic and heroic episodes. Every challenge, including the Chernobyl accident, leaves Catherine without her home. But she is stubborn, as many generations of Ukrainians, in rebuilding her house out of pieces. The story is not only about Catherine's redemption, but also about Ukraine's survival throughout the centuries that is reflected in a folk tradition called Toloka.

Toloka

2020

Toloka poster
6.2

There is a ballad written by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko called “That Catherine's hut is on the hill...". It is about a rescue of Catherine's lover, whom she saves by posing him as her brother. This story, as a parable, flies throughout Ukraine's history and reconstructs its dramatic and heroic episodes. Every challenge, including the Chernobyl accident, leaves Catherine without her home. But she is stubborn, as many generations of Ukrainians, in rebuilding her house out of pieces. The story is not only about Catherine's redemption, but also about Ukraine's survival throughout the centuries that is reflected in a folk tradition called Toloka.

Toloka

2020

Toloka poster
6.2

There is a ballad written by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko called “That Catherine's hut is on the hill...". It is about a rescue of Catherine's lover, whom she saves by posing him as her brother. This story, as a parable, flies throughout Ukraine's history and reconstructs its dramatic and heroic episodes. Every challenge, including the Chernobyl accident, leaves Catherine without her home. But she is stubborn, as many generations of Ukrainians, in rebuilding her house out of pieces. The story is not only about Catherine's redemption, but also about Ukraine's survival throughout the centuries that is reflected in a folk tradition called Toloka.

Toloka

2020

Hit poster
NR

There are songs that kill. The authors of these songs have millions of lives on their hands. One such song is featured in the film. It is well known that even the deadliest poison, in microdoses, can save a life—but in doing so, it takes far more. This poison is wiping out generations.

Hit

2026

Hit poster
NR

There are songs that kill. The authors of these songs have millions of lives on their hands. One such song is featured in the film. It is well known that even the deadliest poison, in microdoses, can save a life—but in doing so, it takes far more. This poison is wiping out generations.

Hit

2026

Hit poster
NR

There are songs that kill. The authors of these songs have millions of lives on their hands. One such song is featured in the film. It is well known that even the deadliest poison, in microdoses, can save a life—but in doing so, it takes far more. This poison is wiping out generations.

Hit

2026

No artwork available
NR

One dawn, one girl, one light bulb. The rest is hope.

He She It

2026

No artwork available
NR

One dawn, one girl, one light bulb. The rest is hope.

He She It

2026

No artwork available
NR

One dawn, one girl, one light bulb. The rest is hope.

He She It

2026

Winner poster
5.0

The hero experiences an addiction which he tries to overcome.

Winner

2022

Winner poster
5.0

The hero experiences an addiction which he tries to overcome.

Winner

2022

Firecrosser poster
6.0

The Hero of the Soviet Union becomes a GULAG prisoner and then an Indian Chief.

Firecrosser

2012

Firecrosser poster
6.0

The Hero of the Soviet Union becomes a GULAG prisoner and then an Indian Chief.

Firecrosser

2012

Wandering poster
NR

Young children go on adventures. Sometimes their imaginations take them far from home, and then suddenly, out of the blue, a child finds themselves alone in an unfamiliar world, on an unfamiliar street, surrounded by strangers. That’s a problem. But it doesn’t just happen to children.

Wandering

2026

Wandering poster
NR

Young children go on adventures. Sometimes their imaginations take them far from home, and then suddenly, out of the blue, a child finds themselves alone in an unfamiliar world, on an unfamiliar street, surrounded by strangers. That’s a problem. But it doesn’t just happen to children.

Wandering

2026

Wandering poster
NR

Young children go on adventures. Sometimes their imaginations take them far from home, and then suddenly, out of the blue, a child finds themselves alone in an unfamiliar world, on an unfamiliar street, surrounded by strangers. That’s a problem. But it doesn’t just happen to children.

Wandering

2026