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Cinenews

Festivals

May-June, 2009

 

The absence of new films is a curious backdrop for an unprecedented explosion of new film festivals in Ukraine, each coveting international status. On May 15-17, 2009  Kharkiv was venue to the first edition of the Kharkiv Lilac Film Festival. The name was borrowed from the title of the book “Les Lilas de Kharkiv” (… Kharkov in the French original) (1990) by the renowned French actress Mylene Demongeot whose mother Klavdia Trubnikova was born in Kharkiv and considered herself a Ukrainian. After the Bolshevik invasion of Ukraine in 1918 Trubnikova fled her native city and eventually found her home in France. Ms. Demongeot arrived in Kharkiv to inaugurate the film event meant to celebrate her achievement on screen, her Ukrainian heritage and her mother Klavdia. The popular national daily Ukraina Moloda, reported Miss Demongeot as saying that she had dug into the deepest roots of the Trubnikov family and found out that they were in deed Ukrainians, not Russians. Said she, “When I say ‘the Russian people’ I mean the Slavs. But we, Ukrainians, have always been different. Ukraine the fatherland of the Cossacks, has her own language, and her own history.” This was Ms. Demongeot’s second trip to Ukraine. Her first one took place in 1993 when she acted in the French-Russian co-production “The Telegraph Route.” In her public appearances now Ms. Demogeot said ‘diakuiu’ the Ukrainian for ‘thank you’. The city of Kharkiv presented her with a traditional Ukrainian shirt embroidered white on white, she also left a plaster imprint of her hand to be cast for a future alley of stars in Kharkiv.

Not to be outdone by Kharkiv, Kyiv responded with several film festivals, one of them with the ambition to become a yearly category-A cine-event. Kyiv International Film Festival (May 29 - June 3, 2009) was organized by Mr. Fedir Krat, a businesman from Odesa and cinephile. The iconic Ukrainian film actor Bohdan Stupka agreed to be its director. The jury headed by the Polish film maker Krzysztof Zanussi was to judge the competitors in nine nominations: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best DOP, Best Script, Best Score, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. The festival opened by the new feature documentary «Rembrandt's J'accuse», by Peter Greenaway, UK. He came to Kyiv to present his new work in person at the opening ceremony held at the Ukrainian National Drama Theater. The peculiar feature of the Festival was that its screenings were off-limits for regular cinemas-goers and only members of accredited press and those with invitations could attend them. Ukraine was represented by feature films ... made for TV: the directors Volodymyr Tykhyi «Mysterious Island», 2008 and Vira Yakovenko, «The Contract», 2009. None got a nod from the jury. Serbian Goran Markovic won the Best Film Award for «The Tour». The Festival featured a Day of Argentine Film and a Day of Russian Film.

 


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