How Ukrainian Filmmakers in Cannes Have Their Voices Heard: “We Must Speak Out Loud Through Cinema”

Ukrainian filmmakers here in Cannes, and in the words of poet Dylan Thomas, will not be polite. While some are in Cannes to promote film screenings, many are here to support their country and ensure that their voices are not forgotten as media headlines about the Russian invasion dwindle.

It’s a strange paradox for many, who wander off the sunny shores of Cannes at a film festival full of energy and life, with only Tom Cruise fighter jets flying. Top Gun: Maverick When your country is at war.

“It’s weird to be here,” said Alexandra Costina of Bosonfilm, producer of the two-day directorial shoot. panfirpremiered last night. Speaking to Deadline at Village International, he watched a group of delegates walk barefoot on the beach and said: “It’s hard to understand how life goes on in the rest of the world when our world is completely changed and will never be the same again.” ”. It’s so surreal.”

The same feels its director, Dmitro Sukholitky-Sobchuk.

“It’s great to be here and play my art at a festival, but that’s not my reality,” she says a few hours before the premiere. panfirDrama about a man who faces corruption in small towns in western Ukraine. “My reality is my country and it’s in the middle of a terrible war.”

He says he sleeps soundly every night when he returns to the festival. “Do you know why?” He is reading. “Because I don’t hear the sound of warplanes and airstrikes. Safe for the skin here. “It’s not the alarm clock we sounded in Ukraine when my alarm went off, warning our citizens of air strikes.”

Maxim Nakonechny says being here is like being in a “parallel world.” director’s movie butterfly sightThe Young Soldier depicts a woman who returns home from captivity a few months later but finds out she is pregnant after she was raped by her boss, starring in Un Certain Regard next week. He shows tattoos with the Ukrainian coat of arms on his fingers and Cyrillic letters on both hands inscribed “freedom” and “will.”

But what became clear soon after meeting these producers is that they continue to fight well and they want everyone at Cannes to know that.

Sukholitic-Sobchuk was particularly shocked by the statements made by Kirill Serebrennikov at the press conference of the Palme d’Or contender. tchaikovsky’s wifeA Russian dissident claimed that Russian civilians were also victims of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Your words will be used very well in Russian propaganda,” he said. “If you invite someone [to a festival] Dissent is a tool of Russian propaganda, even if you are a clever and talented genius. Russian citizens will protect their own citizens. And sacrificing the aggressor is a big lie.”

Nakonechny reveals that the inclusion of the film is utterly deafening, noting that the Russian composer’s family is of Ukrainian heritage. “I ask if it is appropriate to show the festival a film about a composer whose family was born on the territory of modern Ukraine, in the city that is now destroyed by the Russian army.” Is it okay to show such a movie without mentioning it or understanding its context? Answer is no. “

Recognizing that their numbers were not enough to defeat the opponents and those fighting against the regime, the Minister said, “Russians, whose wives were raped by Russian soldiers and whose children were tortured, need help.” I wonder why he’s spreading useful messages to the regime.”

Polish-born director Agnieszka Hollande, who is also the president of the European Film Academy, also condemned the Roman Abramovich-sponsored project being accepted into the Cannes Film Festival and told the delegates at the Cannes Round Table: “It would be up to me. . “Even if Kirill Serebrennikov is a very talented artist, I will not include Russian films in the official festival program.”

He added that his “bad feelings” were confirmed by Serebrennikov’s “bad words”: [the film festival’s press conference] Praise the Russian oligarch and compare the tragedy of the Russian soldiers with that of the Ukrainian defenders. I wouldn’t have given him such an opportunity right now.”

Kostina initially fled with her husband and 7-year-old daughter to a village in Donbas, Kiev, choosing to volunteer at a hospital for premature babies bombed by Russian missiles. “These kids had nothing, they had no towels, they had no beds, they had no pillows, they had nothing,” he said. “We did everything we could to help them because their situation is very difficult and they have special needs in medicine and other matters.”

The producer is currently in a Dutch home in France with his family. panfir Co-producer Claudia Smieja helped found the syndicate. He uses his time in Cannes to actively seek financial support from European industry and activating Ukraine. Kostina says that state funding for Ukrainian filmmakers has been suspended since February 24, meaning that the country’s filmmakers have little hope that their work will continue unless other European funding bodies introduce an incentive for Ukraine. He is meeting with the European Commissioner to see what can be done to further protect the efforts of Ukrainian cinema.

“I don’t know what to do if we don’t have the ability to work,” he said. “It is now clear that our government will not support us, because of course we need to rebuild hospitals, take care of the needy and build the country. So on the one hand, there is no time to devote resources to culture, but on the other hand, we cannot build our country if we do not build our culture because these two are so intertwined and interconnected.”

“We know how to make products, we know how to develop our projects in a way that attracts the attention of the world, but we cannot move forward without the support of local funds. We need access to European funds, albeit only for development, because without it there is no hope for Ukrainian rulers today. We don’t want distribution, we want to work.

Nakonechny admits that in a war situation an independent filmmaker is impossible without access to finance.

“I don’t want to demand anything but we are here because we are victims and we have to remind the international community of the principles they claim to have and to ask them to abide by the international laws that have been drawn up.”

The director emphasizes that this war did not start on February 24, that Ukraine became like this after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014. This was during the editing of the documentary. invisible battalionWho documented Ukrainian female soldiers when inspired? butterfly sight.

“I was very impressed with the experience of a female soldier,” she said. His vision, his approach to war and what was going on with his role in the war were impressive.”

In the documentary, one of the soldiers talked about the deal he made with his comrades: If he took the Russian soldiers hostage, he wanted his comrades to kill him as much as they could.

“I was so impressed that I thought about what could make a captive female soldier more terrifying, and that’s how the idea for the movie came about,” she says. It’s been a tough shoot that was broken by Covid and started the invasion in February. When Russian troops began to gather at the border, he had to change places.

While most Cannes Film Festival delegates return home and families exhausted after seeing a week-long film and a deal, the future for these Ukrainians is not so sure. Both Sukholitic-Sobchuk and Nakonechny will continue to document soldiers in battle, acknowledging that filming is now their best weapon.

“We now need to speak loudly on all possible platforms through our culture, through our literature, through our cinema, because if we don’t speak loudly enough, there will be an opportunity to kill our enemies again,” said Sukholitky. . -Sobchuk.

Nakonechny now knows that he and his people will change forever and that the post-war consequences will be felt by future generations. “Once shooting is over, it doesn’t mean the war is over,” he says. “It lasts a long time and stays with a person forever, and they have to learn to live with it. Martial arts, culture, affect all our fields.

For Kostina, she calls on the international film community not to forget Ukraine and the film industry. He worries that attention will be lost and that he, his compatriots and women will be forgotten.

“This is a tragedy that happens every day,” he said. “It feels like we’re living in a long day and it’s a nightmare. We’re just waiting for the moment when we wake up from this horror.”