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Chicago Hosts Breakthrough
Polish-Ukrainian Film Festival It is no coincidence that
the first Polish-Ukrainian Film Festival took place in Chicago, which
is the world’s second largest Polish city, and with a large Ukrainian
population. At the initiative of the Ukrainian Institute of Modern
Art and the progressive Chopin Theater, the August 24-26 event featured
three days of showings, pre-screening receptions and post-screening discussions
involving several ethnic audiences and international film aficionados. The
festival presented films and discussions about post - revolution experiences
after the Solidarity Movement in Poland and the Orange Revolution in
Ukraine. These revolutions altered the fundamental political and social
systems of their countries but they did not solve the multiplicity of
challenges that the post-Soviet block is facing today, unmanaged issues
of national and individual identity, globalization, and the social, economic
and environmental problems created in the aftermath of radical political
change. Both countries held unrealistic expectations for change, both experienced disillusion and apathy and both continue to suffer from unresolved economic and social problems. These are the post-revolution blues that are addressed variously in the Festival’s featured films in a rare setting of cinematic bilateralism which provoked honest discussion. In
opening remarks, Yuri Shevchuk, director of the Ukrainian Film Club at
Columbia University said, “Poland had a long tradition of cinematographic
creativity, but for Ukraine the festival underscored the country’s
discovery and recovery of its own voice, a voice which was long denied
by Soviet hegemony over culture. Ukrainians now have the opportunity
to tell themselves and the world their own story, to express their long
suppressed aspirations, to celebrate their culture. It is nothing short
of a miracle that over the last 16 years Ukrainian directors have made
films despite an inapt or even hostile government, an indifferent private
sector, and a foreign dominated distribution network.” The program’s thematic progression provided alternative viewpoints
about the region’s problems from the vantage point of film directors,
producers and actors from other countries -- Canada, Spain, Sweden – and
it became clear that foreigners often have a more dispassionately objective
assessment than the natives.
These Canadian film makers successfully tackled difficult, intimate
subjects that film makers in Ukraine have not attempted thus far, and
they did so with an aesthetic eye. They analyze the psychology
of a young generation of Ukrainians for whom the period of independence
shattered dreams, triggering the stark realization that there is no freedom
without opportunities but they cannot decode themselves from their former
country nor find spiritual comfort in their new land. The film’s treatment of language is approached with extraordinary
sensitivity - as both a practical matter of communication but also as
a symbol of individual and national identity. Yuri Shevchuk observed, “For
Yaroslav, language is a curse that reminds him of the past, it was a
reason for persecutions, for ridicule, for discrimination and he tries
to speak English only as he wants to shed any trace of the past. He understands
Ukrainian but he wants to lose it, he even changes his name to Jerry.” His sister Katya is the antithesis to this concept and hangs on to her
Ukrainian language even when it brings back painful historical memories,
images of her deceased mother and family who perished in the Great Famine. She
dreams at night, imagines speaking with her mother during the day, and
sings childhood songs - all in Ukrainian. She symbolizes the traditional
role of the woman who carries on the thread of history, the cultural
traditions and the language to future generations. Katya’s character is haunted by history, the history which was
erased and repressed. The film tackles history, culture, past and present
and like Faulkner brought to life the American south, it brings to life
the stories of a region, which touch upon a universal experience. In
bringing the past into the present like a psychosis and in the way Katya’s
mysterious psyche is haunted by the Famine Genocide of 1933 the film
reminds of Ingmar Bergman. The post-screening discussion was titled “Global Identity” and it was led by Chicago film critic Zbigniew Banas, director Carolyn Combs, screenwriter Michael Springate, Alton Miller of Columbia College, and Yuri Shevchuk of Columbia University. Topics discussed included the meaning of nation, freedom and identity in a global world of quickly shifting boundaries. The Festival’s second day featured the full length movie “Unnamed
Zone” by Spanish director Carlos Rodriguez, the short features “Liza” by
Ukrainian director Taras Tomenko and the black and white “A Man
Thing” by Polish director Slawomir Fabicki, which received an Oscar
nomination in 2002. All three films deal with current problems in Poland
and Ukraine through the eyes of children. The Spanish film “Unnamed Zone” presents the lives of three
youngsters living in the Chornobyl zone, their outlook on the past, present
and future in an environment of ethical, economic, social, cultural degradation
and governmental indifference. Rodriguez focuses on the strength, beauty
and hope of people living in this difficult environment. “Liza” tells
the story of Liza Nikitina, a homeless child living in an orphanage and
on the streets, filmed in the familiar walkways, metro stations and buildings
of Kyiv. She is a survivor at great personal cost - overwhelmed, she
cheats, begs, steals, sleeps in tunnels - she “owns” the
streets. The hero of “A Man Thing” is a thirteen year old
boy who lives in a home with both his parents and is a victim of his
abusive father. The boy is engulfed with loneliness, with the feeling
of being unwanted and unloved and he finds solace through his only friend,
a stray dog. The evening’s discussion was titled “Social Activism in
Filmmaking”. Participants in the round table were Adam Ensalacoof
Greenpeace, Stephen Steim ofHuman Rights Watch, director Carolyn Combs,
Columbia University professor Yuri Shevchuk and film critic Zbigniew
Banas. Discussions centered on the universality of the problems faced
by children who cope with adults destroyed by environment and circumstances.
The three films offered comparisons in approaches by different directors
and striking similarities of the conditions in both countries. The Festival’s third day presented a short feature “There
was a Woman who Lived in a Shoe” by Olena Fetisova. This film presents
a more optimistic and hopeful message of a family that takes in eight
homeless children and raises them up on their own with the help and moral
support of their village neighbors. The festival ended with the full
length feature “Retrieval” by Slawomir Fabicki, selected
for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and recipient of various international
awards. The story presents the eternal question of whether the end justifies
the means. Nineteen-year Polish old amateur boxer Wojtek searches for
his independence and identity and falls in love with Katya, an older
girl-friend who immigrated with her child from Ukraine to Poland looking
for work. In his quest to prove himself as a man who can support her,
he makes a deal with the devil and becomes an enforcer for a criminal
loan shark. By making this Faustian bargain he sells his soul for the
money which he believed would buy Katya’s love, but he loses her
and his family in this moral struggle which absorbs and destroys him. Katya is played by Natalia Vdovina, a Russian actress, her son is played
by Dmytro Melnychuk from Kyiv. Fabicki had both characters speak Ukrainian
in the scenes when they were alone or in conflicting situations. He could
have easily allowed them to play their roles in Russian, but as a Pole
he understood that often people resort to their native language in times
of intimacy or conflict and when in search of identity. By making the
two main characters Polish and Ukrainian, he touched on the problem of
continuous migration of Ukrainians to Poland for work opportunities and
the conflicts created by this process. Fabicki’s
cinematography, which won him an Oscar nomination, is filled with suspense. It
is highly focused and absorbs the viewer into the story with its intensity
and tension. His precise, rapid, camera work make the intensity even
more pronounced. He is a master cinematographer with total command
of the art and power of cinema. The
discussion of these last films was titled “Triumph of the Human
Spirit”, but the resulting talk turned into “The Changing
Concept of Family”. The post-screening reception and talk included
topics on the diminishing role of parents in the upbringing of children,
loneliness and dependency on computers and electronic games, and the
loss of human interconnectedness, all tendencies which are universal. The
audience was a true participant in this extraordinary festival, which
took place in a creative atmosphere of thoughtful exchange, humor, wit
and intellectual challenge. The festival received the attention of NPR
radio with both Yuri Shevchuk and Zygmunt Dyrkacz interviewed on
the program World View by host Jerome McDonald. There was media
coverage in the Chicago Journal and the Chicago Tribune, as well as wide
distribution on the internet. Michael Springate said, “This festival
is what other festivals aspire to, but very few achieve this level of
involvement and informed discussion.” The
Festival’s films are not nostalgic about historical Ukraine or
Poland. They seriously focus on each country’s contemporary
economic, social, and political situations without emotion and bias. The
films ask questions about each society, about who is making economic
and political decisions in these countries, and how these decisions affect
their entire populations. Such a creative program would not have been possible without the support of sympathetic sponsors. Selfreliance Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union, Heritage Foundation of First Security Federal Bank, Kasia’s Deli, LOT Polish Airlines and others came forth with financial support. But it was the enthusiasm and dedication of the organizers, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chopin Theater and Columbia University Ukrainian Film Club, who had the vision to bring current films dealing with Poland and Ukraine and linking them in common themes.
Marta Farion
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