The Hryhorii Baklanov Dovzhenko film chapter began in October 2026, when he appeared as the young Oleksandr Dovzhenko in the biopic Dovzhenko. First Look. The casting is striking because it asks a contemporary television and stage actor to embody a figure who is usually discussed as a monument of cinema history, not as a beginner. The film does not begin with Dovzhenko the celebrated director. It begins earlier, in Odesa in 1926, when the man who would become one of Ukraine’s most important filmmakers was still trying to make his first film. That choice of starting point gives Baklanov a particular kind of role: not an impersonation of a famous older artist, but a portrait of ambition before reputation. The images in this article are AI-generated illustrations, labelled as such. Sources: Wikipedia records that Baklanov was born in Odesa on 31 August 1994, graduated from the Karpenko-Karyi University in 2016, and played Lavrin Kaidash in Catch Kaidash, which premiered on STB in March 2020.
The October 2026 release in one view
The film is scheduled for Ukrainian release on 30 October 2026, with a Kyiv premiere planned for 28 October 2026 at the Zhovten cinema. It is directed by Kostiantyn Konovalov and written by Konovalov and Stanislav Sukhonenko. Its cast includes Hryhorii Baklanov as the young Dovzhenko, Oleksandr Yatsenko, Ostap Stupka, Iryna Mak, Kateryna Vyshneva, Remzi Bilyalov, Oleksandr Sokolov, Albina Korzh and Kateryna Kostyantynova. Its running time is listed as two hours and 52 minutes. The film has also appeared under the English title Dovzhenko. First Sight in some international catalogues. The Ukrainian title is Dovzhenko. Pershyi Pohliad.
What the film is about, according to its own premise
The published premise is deliberately narrow, and that narrowness is part of its interest. The story takes place in Odesa in 1926, a city described in the film’s own synopsis as recovering from years of upheaval and alive with jazz, boxing and ballet. Into that city comes a young Oleksandr Dovzhenko, intent on shooting his first film. He dreams, in the film’s framing, of cinema as art rather than as a tool of propaganda, but he encounters a system that is not ready to let an artist speak freely in his own language. That framing matters because it explains why the film is not a survey of Dovzhenko’s whole life. It isolates the moment of beginning: the point at which a young artist has a vision but no institutional protection, no established audience and no guarantee that his first film will ever be finished, let alone seen. The Film Office report summarised the trailer’s arc in similar terms, describing Dovzhenko’s ambition to create a kind of Hollywood on the Black Sea gradually turning into a struggle for creative freedom, with the realisation that pursuing his own artistic vision could put his life at risk. Readers should treat that as a description of the film’s dramatic premise, not as a verified historical transcript of Dovzhenko’s private thoughts in 1926. According to the 112.ua report, the project was produced by Odesa Film Production alongside the Dovzhenko National Film Studio, with Maven and the NGO Uzunfond also involved, and with support from the Ukrainian State Cinema Agency and the Ministry of Culture. UnitedContentHUB and Maya Films were named as international co-production partners. The director was Kostiantyn Konovalov, and the co-writer named in later cast listings was Serhii Trymbach, a film scholar and researcher of Dovzhenko’s work.
The cast around Baklanov
A biopic about a beginner is, in practice, an ensemble piece, because a beginner’s world is made up of the people who encourage, obstruct, employ or observe him. Maksym Samchyk plays Yuriy Yanovskyi, Polina Vasylyna plays Ida Penzo, and Bohdan Beniuk plays Pavlo Nechesa. Roman Yasinovskyi and Vadym Makhomed are also listed among the cast. Later reporting on the Kyiv premiere added a useful detail: Samchyk and Vasylyna attended the Kyiv premiere in person, while Baklanov could not attend because he was working on another film set, and instead sent a recorded video message to the audience in which he said he regretted missing the event, looked forward to early audience feedback, and wished the film a long theatrical run. He is the title performer; his absence from one event was a scheduling matter, not a change of casting. Yuriy Yanovskyi was a major twentieth-century Ukrainian author and poet who worked as an editor at the Odesa Film Studio in the mid-1920s, and later drew on those experiences for his celebrated novel Master of the Ship. Ida Penzo was a prominent dancer and performer who worked across theatrical and film projects during Ukraine’s avant-garde cultural era.
Why the 1926 starting point matters
Oleksandr Dovzhenko was born in 1894 and first became a teacher before turning to film. He arrived in Odesa and entered cinema in 1926, the very year in which Dovzhenko. First Look is set. His early work included the comedy Vasya the Reformer, and he gained wider recognition with Zvenyhora in 1928. That film, together with Arsenal and Earth, forms the group often called his Ukraine Trilogy, and Earth remains his most internationally recognised work. Dovzhenko died in 1956, and the Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kyiv were later named after him. By starting in 1926, the film avoids the well-known later films and instead asks what it felt like to stand at the beginning of that career, when none of those later titles existed yet. There is also a centenary logic to the release date: the film was scheduled for 1 October 2026, described as landing on the centenary of Dovzhenko’s cinematic debut.
Hryhorii Baklanov before Dovzhenko
Baklanov was born on 31 August 1994 in Odesa, the same city in which Dovzhenko. First Look is set. He attended a children’s theatre school in Odesa before moving to Kyiv to study acting, and in 2016 he graduated from the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, where he trained in the class of Yurii Vysotskyi. He performed with the Kyiv Academic Young Spectator’s Theatre on Lypky from 2014 to 2016 and with the Kyiv Academic Theatre of Drama and Comedy on the Left Bank of the Dnipro from 2014 to 2015. In 2016 he joined the company of the New Drama Theatre on Pechersk in Kyiv, and he has remained a member of that company since. At the New Drama Theatre, Baklanov played Claudius in a 2019 production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, directed by Olha Larina and Denys Martynov. The performance earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2020 Kyiv Pectoral theatre awards. Baklanov’s screen debut came in 2013, and much of the following decade was spent in supporting and episodic roles in Ukrainian television series, including Department 44 in 2015, Bad Good Cop in 2016, Doctor Kovalchuk in 2017 and Ambulance in 2019. His early feature-film credits include My Granny Fanny Kaplan in 2016, Noble Vagabonds in 2018 and Cherkasy in 2020.
The breakthrough that made him a household name
Baklanov’s breakthrough came with Catch Kaidash, produced by StarLightMedia and premiered on STB in March 2020, in which he played the lead role of Lavrin Kaidash. The series is a modern adaptation of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky’s novel The Kaidash Family, and Baklanov’s Lavrin became his best-known role. Later television work includes Worst Friend in 2020, the family saga Saga in 2020, Love and Flame in 2025, and a lead role alongside Dmytro Vivchariuk in the 2+2 series Taxi for a Cop. In 2025, Baklanov was named an Honored Artist of Ukraine, a state honour that recognises sustained contribution to Ukrainian culture.
Voice work and a different kind of audience
He voiced a number of characters in the Ukrainian-language version of the video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, released in 2024. According to his biographical record, he was initially hired for only a few characters, but was repeatedly asked back by the developer, GSC Game World, and ultimately recorded entire groups of non-player characters, including members of the Ward faction and bandits, as well as crowd dialogue. Voice work of that kind demands a different skill from screen acting: there is no face, no costume and no set to help the audience understand who is speaking.
The production itself: made in Odesa, under extraordinary conditions
A later screening notice for Dovzhenko. First Look added a production detail that changes how a reader understands the film. It stated that the film was shot in Odesa under shelling, and that a Russian strike on the film studio destroyed part of the sets while work was still under way. That detail is not a marketing flourish; it is a statement about the conditions under which contemporary Ukrainian cinema is being made. Readers should be careful, however, not to turn that detail into a claim about the film’s quality or its box-office performance, neither of which is established by the available sources. Catalogue listings describe it as a multi-national production involving Ukraine, Canada, Romania, Germany and Lithuania, with Odesa Film Studio and Artbox among the production companies. A Berlin screening was listed for 6 November 2026.
How to watch the film without confusing it with the history
A reader who wants to watch Dovzhenko. First Look should keep three distinctions in mind, because biopics often blur them. First, the film’s Dovzhenko is a character in a drama, not a documentary subject. The 1926 setting, the Odesa Film Factory and the ambition to make a first film are grounded in Dovzhenko’s real move into cinema in 1926, but the conversations, confrontations and private moments in the film are dramatised. Second, the film’s supporting characters, such as Yanovskyi and Penzo, are real historical figures, but their presence in the film is shaped by the story’s needs. Third, the film’s argument about art versus propaganda is a theme, not a verdict. Baklanov arrived at the role with a decade of stage work, a breakthrough television lead, a state honour and a substantial body of voice work behind him.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dovzhenko. First Look a true story? It is a biographical drama based on a real person and a real turning point in his life, but its scenes and dialogue are dramatised.
Who plays Dovzhenko in the film? Hryhorii Baklanov plays the young Oleksandr Dovzhenko. The cast also includes Maksym Samchyk as Yuriy Yanovskyi, Polina Vasylyna as Ida Penzo and Bohdan Beniuk as Pavlo Nechesa.
When was the film released? It was scheduled for Ukrainian cinemas on 1 October 2026, with Kyiv listings showing screenings from 1 to 21 October. International screenings, such as the Berlin listing for 6 November 2026, followed separately.
How long is the film? Cinema listings give a running time of 100 minutes, with an age guidance of 16+.
What was Baklanov best known for before this film? His breakthrough role was Lavrin Kaidash in the STB series Catch Kaidash, premiered in March 2020. He had also built a long stage career at the New Drama Theatre on Pechersk in Kyiv, where he played Claudius in a 2019 Hamlet.
Did Baklanov attend the Kyiv premiere? According to premiere reporting, he could not attend in person because he was working on another film set, and instead sent a recorded video message to the audience.
Is the film available under another title? Yes. Some international catalogues list it as Dovzhenko. First Sight. It is the same production, directed by Kostiantyn Konovalov and starring Baklanov.