Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers is soon expected to change the rules for dubbing movies for cinemas, but society and industry insiders are split in their views over the effects.
On July 13, the Lviv Oblast Council appealed to the cabinet to preserve the current requirement of compulsory dubbing and subtitles in Ukrainian for any foreign movies. But the cabinet, however, is expected to produce a new regulation sometime this summer, requiring that the films be dubbed on Ukrainian territory, but not necessarily in the Ukrainian language.
The Lviv deputies fear that the rule change will lead to the mass return of Russian-dubbed movies on the screen. “There are no economic or humanitarian reasons for attacking the Ukrainian dubbing,” the appeal says.
Ukrainian dubbing was gradually made compulsory over 2006-2008. The Lviv ouncil said the number of cinema visitors grew by 15 percent in 2009, while ticket sales went up by 37 percent, to Hr 420 million. The growth has continued in 2010, when the number of cinema visitors grew by 19 percent, and ticket sales by a further 58 percent, according to zaxid.net internet portal.
But Prime Minister Mykola Azarov recently requested that his culture ministry draft new dubbing rules “as soon as possible,” Segodnya daily quoted him as saying.
There are indicators that regional politics may be at play here. Bohdan Batruh, owner of Kinopalats cinema network, says that in the recent years the Ukrainian dubbing has changed the mentality of many Ukrainians, who are not ashamed of the state language anymore.
“Our second most successful cinema is in Lugansk, where cool Russian-speaking youths are massively watching Ukrainian-dubbed films. Some politicians think they are losing influence over this youth. That is why they are trying to change the rules,” he said.
Batruh, who also owns B&H distribution company, said that the Ukrainian dubbing has been of very high quality, and the new decree might not be able to shake its market position.
“The Ministry of Culture can do nothing. The Cabinet of Ministers can do nothing. If they wanted to change our business, they would have to forbid producing films in the Ukrainian language, the language of our choice,” he said.
Anton Pugach, owner of the Multiplex cinema network, who advocates Russian-language dubbing, says that the requirement that the dubbing has to be performed on Ukraine’s territory will make life more complicated for film distribution companies.
“The dubbing is usually paid for by the foreign copyright companies. It sounds nonsensical to ask them to pay for Russian dubbing twice: on the territory of Russia and then on the territory of Ukraine. Maybe, some independent Ukrainian distributors will end up having to pay for the Russian-language dubbing, but I do not think it will happen often.”
But actors who make their living off dubbing into Ukrainian fear that the new decree will take away their jobs. Nazar Zadniprovskiy, actor from Ivan Franko theatre in Kyiv, says he will most likely lose a part of his earnings because the demand for Ukrainian-speaking actors such as himself will drop sharply, and he won’t be able to pick up the Russian-language contracts because of his rich Ukrainian accent.
“Professional actors will have jobs in any case. Personally I will lose a part of my earnings, while, the actors from the Russian Drama Theater, for example, will benefit,” he predicts.
Zadniprovskiy says that the Ukrainain-language dubbing will not disappear, however, because high quality has become its trademark.“When films are dubbed by really professionally, people stop caring about the language in five seconds”.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Levytska can be reached at [email protected].
