Jedni sądzą, że kino w czasie wojny powinno pełnić funkcję propagandową, i skupiają się na opowiadaniu światu ukraińskiej narracji na temat wojny, inni uważają, że wojna nie zwalnia Ukraińców od myślenia o sobie krytycznie.
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Kaja Puto: War is a good time for cinema .
Martyna Lach: This is an important time for cinema, because it tells the world about what is happening in Ukraine. And since Western viewers are already somewhat bored with this war - filmmakers are provoked to look for new forms of storytelling.
At the beginning of the full-scale war, the production system collapsed, shooting schedules were halted, and filmmakers and filmmakers either joined the army, left the country with their children, or participated in documenting war crimes committed by the Russians or making clips for the Ukrainian military. Later, the suspended productions resumed, and new films began to be made - mostly documentaries, such as 20 Days in Mariupol Mstyslav Chernov or Eastern Front Vitaly Mansky. These are great films, but they seem to have begun to merge viewers into one picture of war horror.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/swiat/czy-wypada-jechac-na-wakacje-do-ukrainy/
Therefore, in order to keep the attention of Western viewers, Ukrainian filmmakers today are looking for an original perspective on the war. An example is the documentary Intercepted by Oksana Karpovich. In it, images of devastation are edited with recordings of conversations between Russian soldiers and their mothers and wives, which were intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence. The film was shown at this year's Berlinale and made an electrifying impression there.
On the other hand, at the Ukraine! festival you are showing Real Oleh Sencov..
The director, who spent four years in a Russian penal colony, returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange, and enlisted in the army in 2022. He fights on the front line, was wounded four times, and took part in the defense of Bakhmut with a GoPro camera on his helmet. He edited Real from the footage thus obtained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tjKvPogMSo
As a side note, isn't the war a difficult time for artists because of the prevailing censorship? I ask this because the Ukrainian journalistic community has recently been complaining about the restrictions placed on them by the authorities..
I don't know anything about such restrictions, I think it rather depends on the filmmakers themselves. Some believe that cinema in wartime should serve a propaganda function, and focus on telling the Ukrainian narrative of the war to the world, while others believe that the war does not exempt Ukrainians from thinking critically about themselves.
An example of such a non-obvious film is Gray Bees by Dmytro Moyseev, which opened this year's festival. It tells the story of two retired mine workers in the Donbas who can't quite put themselves in the black-and-white categories of wartime.
And films are being made that don't deal with it .
As much as possible, quite a few films are being made, for example, about the 1990s and growing up during that time - a trend we have already seen before the war. Ukrainians are measuring themselves against the collapse of the Soviet Union and its legacy.
Last year we showed Do you love me? Toni Noyabrova and Stone, paper, grenade Iryna Tsilyk at the festival. As part of this year's edition, we are presenting Forever, forever Anna Buryachkova - a film about rebellious Kyiv youth at the turn of the millennium - and Diagnosis: a dissident Denys Tarasov, which tells the story of the Soviet custom of placing politically inconvenient people in psychiatric hospitals.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/swiat/polska-to-taka-ukraina-ktora-miala-farta-pocztowka-z-kijowa/
Not all Ukrainian cinemas are operating, but at some distance from the front line, in Kyiv or Lviv, auditoriums are bursting at the seams. The situation is similar in theaters. It seems that no one has done as much for the development of Ukrainian culture as Putin....
And, by the way, for the Ukrainian language, because until a few years ago a significant part of Ukrainian productions were created in Russian. The war has increased interest in Ukrainian cinema among Ukrainians. Everyone sometimes needs a break from the war and just watch a good movie. That's why lighter productions are also being made - comedies, crime or horror films. Last year we showed at the festival The Taste of Freedom by Oleksandr Berezan, a romantic comedy with beautiful cinematography of Lviv in warm colors. This year we have Lessons of Tolerance by Arkady Nepytaliuk, a comedy with an LGBT+ theme, and, well, a horror film, The Witch of Konotop by Andriy Kolesnyk..
Listen to the "Eastern Bloc" podcast:.
https://open.spotify.com/show/4R0FjS5t23AQ7Zxtzfxbjx?si=3ab3822ff207433a
The latter title is this year's hit in Ukrainian cinemas - it tells the story of a witch who takes revenge on the Russians. The film has sparked debate in Ukraine, as some believe that Ukrainian culture pays too much attention to Russian themes, and that the right way to decolonize it is to focus on itself, rather than constantly rolling out its relationship with the enemy.
And how does one approach the Ukrainian legacy of Soviet cinema?
Ukrainian cinema was quite specific compared to Soviet cinema, to mention the tradition of Ukrainian poetic cinema. I have not encountered an opinion that this legacy should be discarded. On the contrary, filmmakers are interested in Ukrainian filmmakers from that period, as exemplified by Taras Tomenko's Sentimental Journey to Planet Parajanov, a documentary tribute to Georgian-Armenian-Ukrainian director Sergei Parajanov, which is also being presented at this year's festival.
What else is worth paying attention to in its program?.
This year we are devoting a lot of attention to the Crimean Tatars - it's the 100th anniversary of their deportation, as well as the tenth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea. In this section, I particularly recommend The Silent Deportation Dmytro Dzhulay and 1944. Crimea. Deportation by Fatima Osman and Yunus Pasha..
We are also organizing a debate on disinformation. This is a very important topic for us, because as a festival of Ukrainian cinema we have been facing a deluge of fake news and hejt lately. We want to sensitize our viewers on how not to give in to this kind of manipulation.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/swiat/uwazajcie-na-siergieja-krytyczny-newsletter-wschodni/
This is your ninth edition. Has the audience's interest in Ukrainian cinema increased in recent years?.
We have spent the last eight years encouraging Polish audiences to get acquainted with Ukrainian cinema. We've managed to create a steady audience that comes back year after year for more. In 2016, when we started the festival, the images of the Maidan and the events of 2014 were still vivid in the minds of the audience, but just two years later, some audience members were asking if the war in Ukraine was still going on. Since 2022, we have had more Ukrainian audiences for obvious reasons.
In general, it can be said that the war has served to promote Ukrainian cinema. Its heyday started after 2014, i.e. after the Maydan, but only now it has lived to see reviews in many cities around the world. The Ukrainian Institute is working vigorously to promote it, but it is also important that the level of films is getting better every year. Ukrainian films are succeeding at various festivals - and this is gratifying.
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The 9th Ukraine! Film Festival will run until Sunday, October 27, at Warsaw's Atlantic Cinema, Kinoteka and the Andrzej Wajda Film Culture Center. Selected films will be available from November 1-17, 2024 on the MEGOGO.PL platform, as well as in cinemas in Krakow, Gdynia, Torun, Lodz, Lublin, Plock, Poznan, Szczecin and Wroclaw.
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Martyna Lach - program director and co-organizer of UKRAINA!FF, manager of the British band The Tiger Lillies, organizer of music, film and performance events.
