Two film projects are under production to throw spotlight on the Soviet-imposed famine-genocide of 1932-33 that killed millions of Ukrainians.
As Ukraine observes the 75- year commemoration of the Holodomor this year, two film projects are under production to
throw spotlight on the Soviet-imposed famine-genocide of 1932-33 that killed millions of Ukrainians.
Their contributions would significantly boost the available films depicting the catastrophe, so far documented in two most notable works: the Canadian-produced “Harvest of Despair” in 1984 and the Ukrainian-made “Famine 33” in 1990.
So few films have been made because the Soviet government denied the Holodomor for more than half a century, while the years of Ukrainian independence were spent recovering history and recognizing the tragedy, which many still deny.
Since Ukraine’s independence, “there have been many films made, but not many quality films,” said Oles Sanin, director of one of the new film projects.
This is mostly due to financial difficulties, he said.
Sanin, among Ukraine’s most acclaimed contemporary film makers, is directing a feature film, “Kobzar,” which won’t be released until 2009.
For Sanin, it was important to make a feature film because they get more attention than documentaries.
The symbolism of this year isn’t that important for completing his work, he said.
“My one goal is to have the world see it and learn more about Holodomor,” Sanin said.
“Kobzar” is the fictional story of an American boy who gets stranded in Ukraine in the early 1930s and ends up as a guide for a blind kobzar, one of the traveling bards who played the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian instrument. He survives after witnessing NKVD executions in 1934.
“The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Holodomor, but it is a story of how a young boy survived in the most tragic and dire circumstances,” said Peter Borisow, one of the film’s backers and president of the Hollywood Trident Foundation, an organization founded in 2001 that connects professionals working in the entertainment industry interested in Ukrainian affairs.
This January, Sanin and Borisow went to Florida to collect eyewitness testimony from Holodomor survivors as research for their feature film. They may use the gathered testimony to produce a possbile documentary.
UkrainianAmerican actor Jack Palance was going to play the lead role in “Kobzar,” until his death last year, Borisow said.
“Kobzar” was conceived several years ago by Sanin, who has been working on the script with Hollywood screenwriters.
Sanin caught Hollywood’s eye as a cinematic storyteller with his 2002 film “Mamay” – the closest a Ukrainian language movie has ever come to being recognized by the Academy, said Borisow, who has been working in the Hollywood film industry since the 1970s.
“Kobzar” will be shot mostly in Ukraine, with a mixture of English and Ukrainian languages with subtitles.
They are aiming for a budget of about $18 million, Borisow said.
As films addressing tragic topics are rarely blockbuster hits for Hollywood, financiers are few, he said.
The very first films depicting the Holocaust were “made possible by the unflinching financial support of the Jewish community worldwide,” Borisow said.
“They understood that telling their story was more important than adding yet another million to some billionaire’s already bloated fortune,” he said.
The wealthiest members of Ukrainian society, what he called “the growing billionaire’s club,” should “absolutely take on the initial financial burden if any meaningful films are to be made by Ukrainians about the Holodomor,” Borisow said, suspecting they fear a negative reaction from Russian business partners.
The second film to be made on the topic is a documentary being directed by Sergey Bukovsky, who gained international recognition after creating “Spell Your Name,” a documentary that featured eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
“Spell Your Name” was financed by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk and American movie legend Steven Spielberg.
Bukovsky’s latest documentary, “Lystopad 7” (November 7), is reportedly being funded by the Ukraine 3000 International Charity Fund, founded in 2001 by Kateryna Yushchenko, the wife of President Viktor Yushchenko.
The fund plays a significant role in efforts to recognize the Holodomor, both domestically and abroad, as an act of genocide against Ukrainians.
Ukraine 3000 representatives were unavailable for comment on the film.
Though the Ukrainian government is financing numerous projects for the 75year commemoration, including construction of a Holodomor HistoricalMemorial Complex, a film is not among its plans.
Part of the problems is that many Ukrainians themselves deny the Holodomor was genocide against Ukrainians. The Party of the Regions and Communist Party of Ukraine, both supported by millions of Ukrainians, voted against recognizing the Holodomor as genocide in parliament.
Meanwhile, the Jewish people thrived in tolerant, Western societies, where they developed an extensive record of the Holocaust and financed its memory through museums, libraries, and films in particular.
Since 2000 in fact, more than 40 documentaries and 20 feature films depicting the Jewish Holocaust were produced worldwide; several hundreds were produced since World War II.
Shedding light on the Holodomor has been gaining pace through efforts by Ukraine’s president Viktor Yushchenko, who has urged the international community to recognize the catastrophe as genocide.
This year was designated to honor Holodomor victims and their memory, and a nationwide campaign to collect eyewitness accounts and survivor testimonies will continue throughout the year.
While in Soviet times Holodomor was a taboo topic, today more than 60 percent of Ukrainians think the United Nations should recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people, according to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KMIS), at the beginning of November 2007.
“Some time later this year or next, certain films will appear, made by mavericks driven by a compulsion to tell the story of the genocide in Ukraine,” Borisow said.
“These films will have been made at great personal sacrifice by people who are not billionaires, just believers in Ukraine and the blood of ten million innocents who died for simply being. At least these few will have done the very best they can to stir the collective conscience.”
