The provocative young studio boss talks food, Kyiv and being a young success.
When asked to select a restaurant for the interview, 26-year-old provocative French animation director Thomas Digard insisted that it would have to be at one of the three French-owned restaurants in Kyiv. “I want to give my money to my people,” he jokes, making it clear, though, that it would only be a short break from paying Ukrainians, something he’s been doing regularly once a month for nearly five years now.
If he sounds a little strange, that’s because Digard is not your average ex-pat. After all, imagine what you’d do if, at the tender age of 22, you were sent to a foreign country to run a company of 600 people?
The Frenchman, who runs the Ukrainian-French Borisfen-Lutece animation studio, doesn’t hesitate to describe those earlier days as a “nightmare.” His task in Kyiv was to improve the quality of the studio’s animation for French, British, German and U.S television channels, as well as its economic performance. Initially, it was supposed to be a two-week assignment, but it obviously turned out to last much longer.
To paraphrase Digard perhaps too mildly, when he first got to the studio the Ukrainian employees seemed to have very little faith in anything he said or did.
“They tried everything to make me go back … put me in a dirty flat – no water, nothing,” Digard adds that three of his compatriots sent to Ukraine by the studio’s co-owner, Millimages, lasted for less than a month. “It was a constant titanic crisis, I felt permanently exhausted.” Being director of the biggest animation studio in Europe was only Digard’s second job. “It was a bit crazy,” as he puts it, “but that is what makes life exciting: You don’t know what will happen next.”
But quick-tempered Digard, who also happens to be half-Iranian, says the right managerial decisions came to him fast – during his first year at Borisfen he fired 300 people by closing five of the studio’s branches. “I really burned the place – I needed to make them respect me, to show my authority.”
Now, five years lately, he says he finally feels comfortable and that he could probably stay here for years, even though he adds cryptically, “you Ukrainians are totally out of control!”
On the other hand, Digard says, when a person works hard, he does all he can to make them comfortable. Sometimes it goes as far as helping someone with their personal problems – such as a recent divorce case between two of his employees. It order not to distract the woman from her work, Digard offered to “negotiate straight with the guy myself.” He wouldn’t elaborate on the outcome of his intervention.
To give him his due, Digard is no easier on his own countrymen who live in Ukraine. “Half of them look like they’ve left France just to escape justice! Imagine mixing with those people!”
It’s at this point of the conversation that Digard summons the waitress and asks her for “two, six, and seven.” Being a regular “supporter of his own people” at Svitlytsya, Digard says he knows the entire menu by the dishes’ numbers. It turns out that he’s ordered buckwheat flour pancakes with cheese (Hr 14), bacon, cheese and eggs (Hr 19), and sausage, cheese and eggs (Hr 19).
Digard says that when he dines out alone the waitress brings him pen and paper without even asking him, so that he can draw, which is the best way for him to relax. He mentions spending some time drawing in his car just prior to the interview.
“If I ever want to make a cartoon for grownups about a journalist I would use you as a character,” Digard laughs as the interview winds down. “You have such a funny expression, pretending you’re listening when you aren’t.”
Still hungry, Digard asks the waitress to bring another round of his entire order, “You should try 22,” he says.
“22” turns out to be a wheat flour pancake with vanilla ice-cream, chocolate and whipped cream (Hr 22). The conversation with the French animator thus ended with both sides well fed and a little fed up – but both in an amiable way.
Svitlytsya
13b Andriyivsky Uzviz, 425-3186
French and European cuisines
English-language menu: Yes
English-speaking staff: Yes
Open: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.Average price of a main dish: Hr 50
