Cinema lovers focus on 8?day film festival
For the eighth year in a row , Union Film Week will offer Kyiv’s “alternative” film‑going crowd a large assortment of films that will give a taste of what’s new and highly acclaimed in European cinema.
Cinema House (Dim Kino) plays host to the festival, which takes place from June 1 to June 8, giving film connoisseurs a rare chance to take in a wide variety of the latest and the best that European cinematography has to offer.
“In Kyiv cinemas it’s impossible to find European movies ‘in daytime with a lamp,’ as we say in Russian,” Kyiv’s renowned film critic Aleks Shpylyuk said.
“From time to time, in the 1970s and 1980s, French films appeared on television. Something can be found on videos,” he added. “But cinema is cinema. You need to watch it on a big screen.”
Shpylyuk said that the prevailing opinion is that European films are not sellable in Ukraine, while U.S. films pervade the market.
“Cinema‑goers are people who have money. They want a candy in a bright wrapper. The U.S. has money for this, but Europe does not,” Shpylyuk said.
The EU Film Week’s free shows attract crowds that can be classified as Kyiv’s artistic elite: local filmmakers, artists, linguists and students from theatrical institutes.
Sixteen films from 11 countries (Portugal and Denmark were unable to participate this year) will run in their original languages in the Cinema House’s Blue Hall, and with Russian or Ukrainian live translation in the Red Hall.
All the films being presented at the festival have met with success at home and have won international awards. According to Shpylyuk, despite the random selection of the films, year after year from 80 to 90 percent of the films are about love. He said that this year many films also deal with the problems faced by the younger generation.
In the British “The Low Down,” the main hero, 20‑something Frank, is stuck in a state of inertia and is unwilling to take a decisive step out of his inactivity. At first glance, the movie seems to have no plot. But as the film progresses, the depiction of several days in the lives of London’s youth itself becomes the interesting part, and plot of the movie.
The bilingual country of Belgium is presenting two films – appropriately, one in French, and the other in Flemish. The French‑language film, “Thomas Is in Love,” tells the story of a young man who is unable to develop any real relationships with people, but communicates through the Internet. His life changes dramatically when he meets a real human being, who turns out to be a prostitute.
In Flemish, “Mannekin Pis” is, again, a love story about a young man, Harry, in love with Jeanne, a tram driver in Brussels. As the tram rides around the city, causing sparks in the electric cords to which it is connected, love also sparks between shy, awkward Harry and his cheerful and confident “watt‑woman.”
Germany’s “Crazy” is based on a novel about teenagers by Benjamin Lebert.
Lebert was only 17 when he wrote “Crazy,” which immediately became a bestseller in Germany. Working carefully with the text, director Hans Christian Schmidt managed to recreate the novel on screen. The film also became a hit, making $1.5 million in admissions and $7 million in box office revenues in its first summer run.
The story is about 16‑year‑old Benni, whose parents send him to a boarding school – his fifth one. But life for Benni isn’t about school. It’s about good friends, falling in love, making music, breaking all the rules, and believing that the future will work out by itself.
Holland is presenting two films. One, “Baby Blue,” is a crime story that also deals with the traditional themes of love, death and money.
The other film, however, comes as somewhat of a surprise.
“Who Are You, Mister Jacky” is a Ukrainian documentary about the friendship between a Ukrainian dissident writer Valery Marchenko and a Dutch student Jacky Bax. The two never met, but maintained a relationship through letters. Marchenko was tortured to death in a concentration camp in 1984 – news that stirred the entire world. However, all public statements and news articles expressing sorrow and indignation over Marchenko’s death were nothing in comparison with Jacky’s grief and suffering.
“It’s a modest small documentary about how difficult it is to become a person and stay a person in a world where prosperity is deemed the main virtue, [and] where those who do not agree with this may even lose their lives,” said Maksym Bernadsky, the film’s director.
Probably the most touching and tender of all the movies being presented during the festival is Greece’s “The Little Dolphins,” about two children who find a boy sick with tuberculosis, and try to save him after he is abandoned by all the adults in his life.
For the full EU Film Festival schedule see page 31C. For invitations to EU Film Week, call Viktoria Davydova at 462‑0010.
