Filmmakers are often used to difficult situations, but Denis Ivanov could never have imagined how fun his job would be when Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of his homeland on February 24.
Ukrainian producer and distributor, who has long been a regular participant in international festival circles, including Oleg Sentsov. Rhinoceros and Sergej Loznitsa donbassHe now volunteers, like many other creative countries, for the local territorial army. Ivanov manages or delivers ammunition, raises funds internationally, helps transport drones that may be needed on any given day to help the people of the country fight the constant onslaught of Vladimir Putin’s army.
Speaking via Zoom from his office in the country’s capital kiev, where Russian troops withdrew completely during the interview to focus on the attack in eastern Ukraine, Ivanov appears calm and focused. He may not fight on the front lines, but his battle for him is still important: he is fighting to preserve Ukrainian culture.
“The war is not just about the military,” he said. “The first thing Russians do when they enter a city or town is go to the library and pull out all the Ukrainian books on our history. It’s not that they’re just fighting for the land, they’re fighting for our language and our culture. The world has often thought of Ukraine as part of the Russian-speaking world, but we know we are not alone. Now we are trying to make everyone understand that we are unique and not part of Russia.
Of course, the challenges ahead are tough, but if the past few months have shown the world anything, it’s that Ukrainians are tough, resilient, and fight fiercely to protect their heritage and homeland. Ivanov’s company, Arthouse Traffic, was one of the first film companies in the country to distribute and produce arthouse cinema when it was founded in 2003. It co-produced Miroslav Slaboshpitsky at the 2014 Cannes Critics’ Week. Tommy It has since released more than 400 films. The company was also the founder and co-organizer of the Odessa International Film Festival from 2010 to 2013.
Now that Russian troops are leaving Kiev, Ivanov and his colleagues have already started the recovery process and are trying to get the locals back to the theaters.
“We are trying to control the damage, because as far as cinemas are concerned, a lot has been destroyed,” he said. “A rocket hit one of the most modern multiplexes in Kiev. But let’s get back to work. It’s not about making money; This is to activate and restore the organization.
“Of course, going to the movies isn’t the first thing people spend money on, but it’s important that we participate in this big wheel and do everything we can to keep the economy going.”
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Ivanov asked international sales agents to strengthen Ukrainian distributors, to see them as a separate entity from Russia, which is now a major concern of the local sector. Ivanov says he buys 50 percent of Arthouse Traffic’s content through Russian distributors because, historically, many global sales suits, especially small teams, have preferred to cover a larger area.
“This is a big challenge for independent distributors like our company because we cannot buy from Russia due to the sanctions,” he said. We definitely need to build it all up and it’s a process, but at the same time it’s a big question mark as to how we’re going to do it in the next couple of years as there are some constraints.
Making a film, he said, is even more of a challenge as he and his colleagues and contemporaries continue to find resources to finish films that were already in post-production when the war began.
For Ivanov, now is the time for Ukraine and its creators to speak directly about the changes that need to be made to bring the country out of Russia’s shadow. After the war began, the influential executive expressed his support for the boycott of Russian films and personally called on all international film organizations and festivals to refuse to popularize or accept Russian titles.
“This is not a boycott of Russian directors, as many of them oppose it. [Vladimir] “Putin,” he said. “But this is a movement against the system that needs to be restored. There are many great directors who are not Putin supporters, but whose films are financed by Putin’s oligarchs or the Russian Ministry of Culture, so they are part of the ecosystem in which Russia has carried out a “special operation” in Ukraine. “We just want to stop the system, not the rational directors, but the narrative ones.”
He hopes the “disruption of the system” will in turn encourage Russian artists to explore their own narratives, which Ivanov says are laden with stories that elevate Russia’s role in World War II or the conspiracies in which Russian soldiers win the battle.
“Russian culture also needs to reinvent itself and will not reinvent itself if it is linked to propaganda institutions or oligarchs who support Putin,” he said.
On the eve of Cannes, Ivanov, who is part of the Cannes Market Producers Network, and his colleagues spoke with the festival organizers to explain their opposition to some of the decisions made for the 75th edition of the festival. In particular, he raised the theme for the opening night of the festival film. Z (as Z) From Michel Hazanavicius, whom Ivanov called a pro-Russian symbol of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Institute even published an official letter to the festival, as the “Z” is considered a pro-war symbol in Russia. In response to this criticism, Hazanavicius changed the name of the film. Coupe!
While Ivanov points out that the original name was a coincidence, it had enormous ethical implications for the Russian-Ukrainian situation. Ivanov also spoke about the participation of Kirill Serebrennikov tchaikovsky’s wife, which this year is showing In Competition, a title sponsored by Kinoprime, Roman Abramovich’s $ 100 million film fund. The European Union (EU) and Britain have imposed sanctions on Abramovich for his close ties to Putin.
“Cannes is an important festival and one that everyone watches,” he says, “so how they deal with these issues will affect how other festivals and delegates deal with them.” It will be a domino effect “.
As long as Ivanov continues to fight well, he will quickly dispel any speculation that he is one of the cultural heroes of the current Ukrainian generation.
“My friends who are on the front lines and in mortal danger are heroes,” he said. “We are all trying to do what we can on the other front.”
It is clear that Ivanov is proud of what Ukraine has built in just four decades of cultural existence and he, like many of his compatriots and women, is busy building it. It was “rebooted” thanks to the solidarity shown by the international film community in Ukraine, which bolstered morale and determination. He called on the film community in general to support the showing of Ukrainian films in their own countries and to continue to insert Ukrainian voices in the local media.
“We are grateful for all the little things, because, believe me, they are very important to us,” he said. “What we don’t want is to just be a victim. Of course, we are in a very difficult situation and while we are victims of aggression, we want not only to survive, but also to develop as a nation and as a culture. Now is the time to find partners for new projects to restore this sales system in films, as well as to present our views on Ukrainian-Russian relations. We don’t want anyone to say that you are little Ukrainians. We are powerful. “
Source: Deadline
