REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: The debut of "Orange Sky" (03/19/06)

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

The debut of "Orange Sky"

As much as Ukrainians enjoy ridiculing Hollywood and its " 'khepi' endings," "Pomarancheve Nebo" (Orange Sky) has a cookie-cutter Hollywood plot with a finale that could have come directly from a "Happy Endings 101" textbook. (See news story in last week's issue.)

It's the very simple Hollywood story line (boy meets girl; boy must choose between lusty bad girl and idealistic virgin) that is desperately needed in the anemic Ukrainian film industry that hasn't yet been able to produce a commercial success and capitalize on the basic pop culture sensibilities of average people.

In this sense, "Pomarancheve Nebo" will likely go down as the film that launched modern Ukrainian film-making.

Just maybe, it took something as dramatic at the Orange Revolution in order for this to happen because without it, "Pomarancheve Nebo" never would have been made.

Only now is it becoming apparent that the significance of the Orange Revolution is extending far beyond politics or Viktor Yushchenko. It was a cultural revolution that re-ignited Ukrainian consciousness and identity.

With "Pomarancheve Nebo," we're not talking about "A Beautiful Mind" or "American Beauty" - films that change the way people think or view the human experience.

It's monumental simply because it's a high-quality film that features contemporary Ukrainians in positive roles, and for no other reason than that.

After all, it was a pleasant surprise to ride a Kyiv metro escalator and suddenly see an advertisement for a Ukrainian movie.

The last attempt at a large-budget Ukrainian film was 2002"s "Prayer for Hetman Mazepa," a film that some Ukrainian culture critics say set Ukrainian film backwards with its vicious tone and further stereotyping of Ukrainians as provincial barbarians.

"Pomarancheve Nebo" isn't perfect, in the sense that two of the three lead roles involve Russians playing Ukrainians speaking in Russian.

But it's a start, and perhaps in 20 years it will be Russians playing Ukrainians and speaking Ukrainian.

Mark Zadukha (played by Russian Aleksander Lymariev) is the wealthy son of a powerful Kyiv Oblast chairman who made his fortune indulging in the rabid corruption of the Kuchma administration.

The film opens at a protest at the Central Election Commission just as the Orange Revolution begins to erupt.

Curious about the political events taking shape, Mark is in the crowd when he suddenly receives a blow to his face courtesy of a law enforcement officer.

The young, idealistic revolutionary Ivanna, played by Vinnytsia native Lidia Obelenska, dusts off the bloodied Mark and helps him to his feet.

Their eyes twinkle, he asks for her cellphone number and thus their courtship begins.

As with any Hollywood love story, Mark and Ivanna must overcome social and cultural obstacles and hurdles that stand in the way of realizing their love.

Mark already has a love interest, a devilishly sexy fellow aristocrat named Asya (played by Russian Ksenia Bielaya), with whom he has long since made plans to study at a London university.

His plans with Asya are supported by his father, who has invested a lot in his son's foreign education and fiercely opposes the Orange Revolution because it threatens his wealth and way of life.

In spite of his bright future in London with Asya, Mark is mysteriously enamored with the innocence and passionate idealism of Ivanna, who as the movie's leading patriot, is, of course, a native of Lviv.

Mark's internal conflict between embracing Ivanna and Asya extends far beyond love or politics.

Asya symbolizes the human desire to indulge in life's selfish, immediate pleasures and evade difficult struggles, while Ivanna represents the righteous self-sacrifice that man must undertake in order to further society and grow spiritually.

"Pomarancheve Nebo" contains enough cheesy love scenes to make the average emotionally reserved male cringe in discomfort. They are topped off by a climactic love-making session in a tent on the Khreschatyk that is among the stranger love scenes this reporter has ever seen.

(Perhaps I'm a bit prudish, but the film could have just as well done without a scene in which the lead male is pleasuring his companion with his fingers. I need not get any more specific than that.)

A few other things about the film may irk Ukrainian Americans.

First off, I would estimate that 65 percent of the dialogue is in Russian. Before you shudder in disgust, the film's screenplay writer said the use of Russian is meant to reflect the reality in Kyiv, where there is a Russian-speaking majority.

In many of the film's dialogues, the use of either Russian or Ukrainian language carries political significance as well.

Mark Zadukha and his family all speak Russian, representing the Russo-centric attitudes and culture of the Kuchma administration.

At one point in the film, a police officer representing the corrupt government speaks Ukrainian, demonstrating that it's not only Russian speakers who are subjugating Ukraine.

Ivanna lives with a couple in which the husband speaks Russian.

But it's his pregnant wife who speaks Ukrainian, which in my view can only signify that it's the Ukrainian speakers who are giving birth to a new Ukrainian nation.

In many dialogues in the film, one person speaks Ukrainian while the other speaks in Russian, representing the odd compromise Ukrainians must undertake in order to peacefully co-exist.

One film critic for a major newspaper I spoke to said she's not bothering to see the film because others have told her it's popular culture mush.

But doesn't Ukraine need those types of films, I asked her? I don't know, she said. It's "aesthetically unconvincing."

I'd say "Pomarancheve Nebo" can appeal to anyone inspired by the Orange Revolution, snobs and dolts alike.

The Orange Revolution spawned two more soon-to-be-released Ukrainian films, these with million-dollar budgets: "Orangelove" and "Prorvemos!"

For all of Ukraine's political gains from the Orange Revolution, at least it now has some semblance of a film culture.

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