The Film Industry Shows Signs of Life

An unprecedented event for our times occurred last Friday at the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Studio: real cameramen and actors in costume for shooting appeared on studio sets that had been deserted like a prison after an evacuation. One can accept the above tirade as a taunt. Well, but in the background of paralyzed film production in Ukraine every single attempt to shoot a film can be regarded as a sensation. Oles Yanchuk, a film director known by audiences for his previous films, Famine-33 and Assassination: An Autumn Killing has dared to do this and began shooting test footage for a new film, Commander of the Army of Immortals. This is a historical tale devoted to Roman Shukhevych (Taras Chuprynka), a hero and one of the most zealous fighters against Stalinism and for the Ukrainian national idea. This part will be played by a prominent Ukrainian actor Hryhory Hladiy who due to happy coincidence and a Kurbas Center invitation was in Kyiv then days. Incidentally, the other Saturday Mr. Hladiy along with his partner painter Volodymyr Kovalchuk, having completed his master-classes in Kyiv, performed an open class at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and an improvisation at the Suzirya theater (for more see page 4, MEDIA).

Work on the new film was made possible by the financial assistance of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America headed by Askold Lozynskyj. Ukrainian sources have also pledged support, but the project has yet to receive any concrete financial contributions from our compatriots.