Ukraine without full-length films

Permanent presence of a major international festival makes the fall in Kyiv truly cinematic. Ten days of Molodist festival at the late October will be really the central cinema event of the year.

Last week a team of the 41st Molodist led by Andrii Khalpakhchi held a press conference to announce the first results of the selection to three contests of the festival: short, student, and full-length films. They also talked about some non-competition events.

Festival begins on October 22 with a historical drama The Battle of Warsaw 1920, one of the first Po-lish films shot in 3D. It was directed by Jerzy Hoffman – well-known to Ukrainian audience, particularly by the film With Fire and Sword, starring cast of star actors: Daniel Olbrychski, Michal Zhebrowski, Boguslaw Linda, and Aleksandr Domogarov. The plot is ba-sed on the legendary Polish victory (by the way, units of UPR assisted Poles in the battle) over the Red Army that invaded their country. In Polish historiography this event is called the “Miracle at the Vistula.”

The main innovation of this year is that the student works competition includes films shot in digital HD format. The importance of this step is hard to overestimate because not every student has the opportunity to make a film on tape. Thus, many debuts in previous years remained outside the festival. In general, student films and short films contests are almost completely supplied with films participants. The geography of the participants is spread from Argentina and South Africa to Portugal and Great Britain. There also will be participants from Ukraine: in student films category – Myroslava Khoroshun with Fellini Factor, in short films category – already well-known in Ukraine Maryna Vroda with mini-drama Kross (a country race), which was awarded the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year. With high probability the work by Vroda could be out of competition in Kyiv as well.

For the rest of local films there is a separate competition with its own prize fund – “Panorama of Ukrainian Cinema.” This year more than 20 films, including those made in co-production with other countries, will take part in this competition.

The selection to the most significant full-length films competition is still ongoing. There are already 8 films out of 12 anticipated. Reviews of national film schools dominate in the non-competition programs (which has already become a tradition): Ukrainian Premiers, French Connection, German Wave (former German Boulevard), New Russian Cinema, Scandinavian Panorama, Polish School of Animation, Polish Documentary Film Program, Long Nights of Short Films: Germany, and Long Nights of Short Films: France. The best movies of the large film forums can, as always, be seen at the Festival of festivals. For the first time at the Molodist festival the programs of Cinergy (devoted to digital cinematograph) and Eye on Film will be presented.

The festival’s special projects are the third international co-production market Molodist Boat Meeting, Talents Workshop – workshops of famous artists from different fields of cinema, and international meeting of the East European Film Alliance within the framework of EEFA Training Network.

The special events will add special diversity to the festival, among them are: multimedia performance Portraits; Mania. Story of Tobacco Factory Worker – special film screening accompanied by chamber orchestra; premier of journalistic film by Cyril Tuschi Khodorkovsky and new film by Kim Ki-duk Arirang; retrospective of the famous French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, personalities’ actions – Vaclav Havel, Roman Balaian 70, Ivan Mykolaichuk 75; Molodist for Children; evening with Oleksii Horbunov; retrospectives In Memoriam: Claude Chabrol, Liudmila Gurchenko; concert of New Era Orchestra “Andrei Tarkovsky: Sacrifice”; photo exhibit, and film screenings.