Film Library
Acts of Imagination, 2006.

Original title: Acts of Imagination, 2006
Copyright: A Springate-Combs Production, 2006
Format: feature narrative
Carrier: DVD
Color: color
Length: 85"
Original language: English with some Ukraine
English subtitles: yes (for Ukrainian)

Film crew
Director: Carolyn Combs
Script writer: Michael Springate
Cinematographer: Stephen Deneault
Production designer: Roman Hlywa
Sound design: Randy Raine-Reusch
Editor: Thomas Sabinsky
Composers: Randy Raine-Reusch, Ari Snyder
Executive producer: Barry Chambers

Film cast
Katia - Stephanie Hayes
Yaroslav –
Aashir- Julian Samuel
Seuchong – Maki Nagisha
Petro – Volodymyr Serdiuk
Mother – Natalia Shakhray
Landlord – Mariusz Wasilewski
Costa – Michael Springate
François – Alex Williams
Bartender – Lindsey Drummond

 

Synopsis

From the film’s web site synopsis

Is history an act of imagination? The question haunts Katya and her brother Yaroslav, young immigrants to Vancouver’s east side. They have recently arrived from Ukraine where the official version of history was for many years at odds with their own. Struggling to adapt to a new country, the siblings are trying to make sense of a past that remains a disturbing mystery.
Katya and Yaroslav have always been close, but their tight bond causes problems in their new life.  As Yaroslav struggles to make ends meet after losing his job, Katya becomes increasingly obsessed with imagining the details of their parents' disappearance. She suspects they were murdered for supporting the independence movement that led to the "Orange Revolution".  Slipping into her mother’s character, imaginary moments from the past are triggered by her affair with Aashir, an older man Katya meets on the banks of the Fraser River.
Desperate for money, Yaroslav devises a plan to sell a precious heirloom from the Holodomor, the Stalin-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians. The real world collides with Katya's imagined world, and a series of events with unforeseen consequences are set in motion. A film about the power of new relationships, forgiveness and the mutability of memory, Acts of Imagination explores how historical injustice parts people and the unexpected solidarities that can arise.

About the film director.

Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University© 2015. For more information please contact Yuri Shevchuk