Films and television
Opening on September 20, the 2015 Toronto Film Festival featured a film about Maidan – “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” by Evgeny Afineevsky. “Winter on Fire” became a feature offering on Netflix and was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it was greeted, according to reviews, with a standing ovation. “Winter on Fire” is one of five films nominated for best documentary feature for the 2016 Academy Awards.
TIFF
Scene from “Winter on Fire,” a new film about the Euro-Maidan, which became the Revolution of Dignity.
On March 11, The Ukrainian Museum in New York hosted a presentation of three videos by New York filmmaker Damian Kolodiy. The centerpiece of the afternoon was “A Ukrainian Soldier’s Account from the Front Lines,” a documentary about one soldier who was part of the ATO forces surrounded by Russian troops in the Debaltseve cauldron. Mr. Kolodiy’s film showed Oleksander Zozuliak in a Kyiv hospital bed recovering from massive injuries as he recounted his terrifying story of being crushed and trapped under a Russian tank.
The subsequent panel discussion organized by Andrea Chalupa included Michael Weiss, author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror” and Mouaz Moustafa, the central figure in “Red Lines”, an award-winning documentary about Syrian activists. Lessons were drawn from the struggles of both Syrian and Ukrainian oppositions, in their home fronts and in political efforts to harness international support.
Director Olga Morkova’s documentary “Crimea Unveiled” was screened on March 25 at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York. Ms. Morkova’s film highlighted Rustem Skibin, a Crimean Tatar artist forced to relocate to Kyiv upon the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian peninsula – a symbol of the tragic decline of a culture and a whole nation, starting with the 1944 forced exile of nearly the entire Crimean population by the Soviets. Ayla Bakkalli, U.S. representative of the Indigenous Crimean Tatar Mejlis, expanded on the history and present situation of Crimean Tatars.
Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s film “The Tribe” about a boarding school for deaf children near Kyiv met with unprecedented acclaim and collected the most awards in the history of Ukrainian cinema. On June 17, “The Tribe” opened at the Film Forum in New York City for a two-week run. Director Slaboshpitskiy and lead actress Yana Novikova came to New York on a publicity tour and answered questions in an exclusive interview for The Ukrainian Weekly.
“The Tribe” was filmed with deaf actors and portrays a society that has regressed to a primitive and desperate state. Mr. Slaboshpitskiy explained that he wanted people to understand this is “not about deafness; it is about human beings.” He also spoke about the present-day outlook for the deaf and other handicapped groups throughout Ukraine.
On July 7, the 2012 Ukrainian film “Haytarma” (“The Return”) was screened at the National Democratic Institute in Washington. The showing was co-sponsored by the Embassy of Ukraine and the Crimean television station ATR, which had been forced to leave Crimea and now broadcasts from Kyiv. The screenplay tells the story of Amet-khan Sultan (1920-1971), a Crimean test pilot and decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, who returns to his home town of Alupka just before the brutal Soviet deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944. “Haytarma” contains striking aerial footage and also shows the tragedy of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars; it is available for viewing on YouTube. “Haytarma” portrays hard truths about the past and, in the light of recent events, is a prophetic film. It is now banned in Russia.
Another film director, Andrew Tkach, was also interviewed in the September 6 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly. His documentary “Generation Maidan: A Year of Revolution and War” was shot with the help of the Babylon ’13 filmmakers who captured history in the making with amazing footage of Maidan. While other Maidan films may have presented a bewildering display of violence, “Generation Maidan” told a multi-layered story through the eyes of participants, including a detailed story about Pavel Yurov, abducted and imprisoned for 72 days by separatists in Sloviansk.
On May 31, Ukrainian Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the Critic’s Choice Awards. She plays the role of Lagertha in the much-watched History channel series “Vikings,” now in its third season.
Ms. Winnick’s Ukrainian roots run deep; her grandfather was a member of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. She is proud to say in numerous interviews how her long involvement in Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization was the foundation of her upbringing and she has spoken out clearly about the current struggles in Ukraine. Growing up in Toronto, Ms. Winnick immersed herself in martial arts, attaining a black belt in karate and taekwondo. On the set of “Vikings” she does all her own stunts. Ms. Winnick is planning her first visit to Ukraine. She stated she would very much like to visit Kyiv and would also like to meet with Plast scouts in Ukraine.