Scenes in a movie about Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus that feature a portrayal of the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, which were reported to have been cut from the script, will indeed be shot, the movie’s production team has said.
Actor Hennadiy Popenko, in a posting on his Facebook page made on Aug. 10, revealed that the scenes featuring Medvedchuk had been cut. The movie is in production and is scheduled for release in February 2019.
Medvedchuk was Stus’s defense lawyer at the poet’s trial in 1980 for anti-Soviet activities. In his final statement, Medvedchuk took the side of the state, agreeing with the charges made against Stus. After being found guilty, the poet received a ten-year prison term and five years in exile. He was sent to forced labor camps for political prisoners, where he died in 1985 in mysterious circumstances.
The poet’s conviction was quashed by a Soviet court in 1990 due to there being no evidence that he had committed a crime.
Popenko said he clearly remembered two scenes with Medvechuk in the script – one during the trial and another when the lawyer visited the poet in prison. Popenko told Ukrainian television’s Channel 5 that the scenes had been cut from the script “because of pressure” on the team.
He did not name his sources, however.
Reacting to Popenko’s claims, the movie production team said they had initially decided to remove all mentions about Medvedchuk because the film is scheduled to be released in the middle of a presidential political campaign – Ukraine’s presidential election will be held at the end of March 2019.
“…We did not want to make the memory of a great man a tool of political influence and arguments,” the team said in a post on Facebook Aug. 11.
“The court scene was removed from the latest script drafts, along with another two dozen scenes.”
However, the team said that because of the outcry from society over the deletion of the scenes, they had reversed their decision.
“We admit that while removing (these scenes) from the latest script drafts we did not respond properly to an analysis of their significance for society,” the team’s Facebook statement read.
Medvechuk, a pro-Russian politician and multi-millionaire businessman, actively opposed Ukraine’s integration with European Union before and during the EuroMaidan Revolution. He has a family connection with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is a godfather of Medvechuk’s daughter.
Medvedchuk, also an associate of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, is widely seen as a representative of Putin in Ukrainian politics. He is currently helping to negotiate the exchange of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners.
The movie, called “Stus,” obtained partial financing from the state, with the State Film Agency covering half of its Hr 44 million ($1.6 million) budget. The version of the script that had the scenes with Medvechuk in it won a state competition in 2017 to qualify for funding.
State Film Agency Head Pylyp Ilienko welcomed the reinsertion of the scenes in the film that feature Medvedchuk.
“I consider unacceptable pressure from any side on the makers of any film, including from a political point of view, and emphasize that censorship is prohibited in our state by the constitution,” Ilienko said.
At his trial Stus, a poet and active member of the Ukrainian dissident movement during the Soviet Union, requested an independent defense lawyer from an international organization, but his pleas were rejected and Medvedchuk was appointed as his lawyer.
Medvechuk’s own lawyer, Ihor Kyrylenko, said in a statement on Aug. 12 that the scandal was a PR campaign against the politician headed by a political rival – Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
After the scandal about the script broke, Groysman asked the state agencies to handle the situation and tell Stus’s story “honestly, truthfully, completely, and without distortion.”
“This is a matter of honor,” Groysman said in Facebook comment on Aug. 11.
