Vsevolod Nestaiko's Heirs Approve a Film Adaptation of The Toreadors of Vasyukivka for the First Time: Details
The film will be made by the team behind You Are Space.
The heirs of Ukrainian writer Vsevolod Nestaiko have, for the first time since Ukraine's independence, entrusted the rights for a film adaptation of the novel The Toreadors of Vasyukivka. The DeTalks team was informed of this by the production company ForeFilms.
According to the producers, their team has already completed the legal process for securing the rights and officially begun work on the film.
The first details about the upcoming film — in this DeTalks article.
The Film's Team
According to information from ForeFilms, the upcoming film's directors will be Roman Krasnoshchok and Anton Chystiakov. The Toreadors film will be the pair's first feature — they'd previously worked on short films, as well as the documentary film We Are Home.
According to the directors, Nestaiko's novel was their favorite book growing up, and they'd dreamed of adapting it since they were 12.
ForeFilms itself has previously made Ukrainian films like Antonio Lukich's Luxembourg, Luxembourg and Iryna Tsilyk's Me and Felix, as well as Pavlo Ostrikov's You Are Space, which in 2025 became the highest-grossing Ukrainian narrative film.
The Plot of The Toreadors of Vasyukivka
According to the plot of Nestaiko's trilogy, made up of the novellas The Adventures of Robinson Kukurudzo, The Stranger From Apartment Thirteen, and The Secret of the Three Unknowns, schoolboys Yava Ren and Pavlusha Zavhorodnii want to become famous around the world. To do that, they try to become toreadors, catch foreign spies in their village, conquer Kyiv, and much more.
The novel has been translated into over 20 languages and was included on the Hans Christian Andersen Award's Honour List, a roster of the most outstanding works of contemporary children's literature.
The film's creators haven't yet revealed plot details, but assured audiences they'll preserve the work's authenticity — a key point in their negotiations with Nestaiko's daughter, Olena Maksymenko, who currently holds the rights to the work.
Under an optimistic timeline, filming is planned to begin in about a year and a half.