A new film by a Hollywood director about the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled former President Viktor Yanukovych last winter will be shown at an international film festival, and then in Kyiv this autumn.
Speaking to the Kyiv Post during a visit to Ukraine’s capital last week, director Evgeny Afineevsky said he hopes his film, “Pray for Ukraine,” will show the three-month long anti-government protests through the eyes of its participants. He would like it also to be a video monument to those who died during the revolution.
The premiere of “Pray for Ukraine” will come during the Toronto Film Festival in early September. The documentary will be presented to a Ukrainian audience on Nov. 21, the first anniversary of the beginning of the EuroMaidan Revolution.
The title of his film is meant to be symbolic, Afineevsky said, as people’s prayers for the more than 100 fallen protesters go on and Ukrainians continue their struggle for dignity.
“This film is not that much about the events of Maidan as about the development of civil society through these events,” explained Dmitry Tolmor, the film’s producer. As every metamorphose process, as the butterfly appears from the caterpillar, Ukraine has gone through the pain to become an independent nation. This was our idea [to show this process].”
“Pray for Maidan” reveals events preceding Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March and its war against Ukraine in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The story is told through eyewitnesses, and with no off-screen text.
To create the documentary, the filmakers interviewed more than 50 direct participants of the revolution and processed more than 500 hours of footage from various sources to reproduce the most complete picture of events. Much of the video materials used in the documentary have never been published on the internet or TV.
“We wanted to show the story of ordinary people who have been there, with no politicians involved – beginning with doctors and ending with a little Roma boy,” said Afineevsky. “I’ve made it a feature film, but there is no acting.
Afineevsky also said he chose to use coloring techniques in the film that will allow for certain colors and objects to pop from the screen.
“Documentaries are not usually colored, but we’ve [used] color for our film, he said, adding that he has edited much of the film to be in grayish tones, but objects such as protesters’ orange helmets, blood and fire will be highlighted. “They are of their bright, original colors. Now you can see for example that Seriozha Nihoyan was indeed wearing a flag on his chest. You would never perceive that in a full-colored film.”
The organizers said the project would be impossible without the contribution of Ukrainian media and civic journalists and activists like Spilnobachennia, UkrStream.TV, Channel 5, Radio Svoboda, Espresso TV and many others.
Through their non-stop video coverage of EuroMaidan, the news organizations created an invaluable archive of footage that will live as a testament of hope and devotion shown by Ukrainians during the freezing months last winter, organizers said.
