Valentyn Vasyanovych, the Venice prize-winning director of Reflection and Atlantis, who is now developing his next project in Kyiv, has called on the European industry and streaming platforms to do more to support Ukrainian filmmakers.
Vasyanovych’s most recent films – 2021 Venice competition title Reflection and 2019 Venice Horizons winner Atlantis - were both set against a backdrop of conflict with Russia.
Reflections, about a surgeon captured by Russian military forces in eastern Ukraine, is the only Ukrainian feature to make the longlist for this year’s European Film Awards. It is repped by New Europe Film Sales.
Atlantis, set in a near future, war-torn eastern Ukraine, was filmed in the now destroyed city of Mariupol.
His new project will be a more personal, intimate story – about a director who finds himself “in the middle of the craziness” of the current conflict. At treatment stage, it will deal with many of the issues that Vasyanovych and his compatriots have faced in recent months: carrying on with everyday life during wartime, caring for elderly parents and coping without wives and children who have sought refuge abroad.
Like most Ukrainian men, Vasyanovych has remained in the country, as has his eldest son, and he has been caring for his father. His wife and daughter have left Ukraine, and now live in a village near Vienna in Austria.
Personal story
Talking to Screen with his regular producer Vladimir Yatsenko of ForeFilms, Vasyanovych stressed his new project is a fiction film and not a documentary. “It’s a very important story because it is personal,” he said via Zoom from Kyiv.
Vasyanovych, who is aged 51, has not fought as a soldier in the conflict. “A lot of people find themselves in a position where they have not run abroad, they have decided to stay in Ukraine, but they’re not soldiers either. So, they try to understand how they can help and how they can survive.”
Yatsenko, meanwhile, has just returned from the front line for a brief break after volunteering in the army at the start of the war. His family have remained in Ukraine – two weeks ago, his partner gave birth to a son, their third child. “In several days, I have to go back to the front line,” said Yatsenko. “Simultaneously I tried to finish some stuff which was not produced and develop some stuff which should be produced later. Because life should go on despite of everything.”
Vasyanovych is one of 48 Ukrainian filmmakers to receive to receive a development grant for his project from the Ukrainian Film Academy with support from Netflix worth $15,000 each. He plans to deliver his script by the end of the year.
‘The funding system is now dead’
Vasyanovych noted that film funding from the Ukrainian government has dried up completely, with money allocated to the war instead. This, he said, has had a major impact on the film industry in the country.
“Before the war, it [government funding] was the main source of support…the system is now dead. All producers, directors and writers are trying to find sources [of funding] for working and for living.”
In Vasyanovych’s opinion, the Ukrainian government is wrong to withdraw its support – and should in fact double its backing for the industry so that filmmakers can share the ‘truth’ of what is happening in their country.
“We have a very small amount of money - not like Russia. If we do not tell the real story of what happened during the war, after the war it will probably be Russia who, with their money, can completely change the truth. Because the Russians can play these games pretty well.”
Vasyanovych said lack of funding is a major issue for Ukrainian filmmakers, with most unable to access any funding from outside the country. “Our system was integrated in European system of co-production. But the system of co-production means that to get something you need to put in something. If you don’t have national resources, you get zero.”
European funding
Vasyanovych called on the major streaming platforms to do more to invest in Ukrainian content, and for Ukrainian filmmakers to be able to access national funds from fellow European countries.
“If the European film community could at least accept some of the Ukrainians who apply to their national funds, it could be a big, big deal, because it would really save the industry.”
“Another important thing is that the big platforms, they really could invest. It’s a small amount of money [for them], but it would help them to get new content, and to see what’s really happening in the world right now.”
He also urged Europeans not to become tired of the conflict, and to carry on supporting Ukraine despite impact of the war on the world economy.
Vasyanovych’s films, are by his own admission, “pure art – and not super commercial”, making it “complicated to find money” to back them.
However, his producer Yatsenko stressed that they don’t require large budgets. Vasyanovych acts as scriptwriter, director, DoP, producer and editor on his projects, and shoots with a very small crew.
At the start of the war, Vasyanovych initially planned to make a documentary film about the war – and even started filming for it - “but decided this approach is not the right one” for him.
Wartime in Kyiv
Vasyanovych and Yatsenko were speaking from Kyiv in the same week Russia has once again started to target the city with missiles.
Until recently they said the city had felt almost like it was before the war started. “The streets were crowded, people were sitting in cafes. After the shock of the invasion, a lot of people left Ukraine. But people who have stayed here or who have come back, they accept this idea that you could be killed at any moment.”
Vasyanovych said he is convinced Ukraine will win the war, but admitted to feeling worried that his contribution as a filmmaker is not that “valuable” an effort compared to the soldiers who are fighting. “But it’s the only thing I can do properly, and I would like to continue to do it.”
Yatsenko said: “We are not thinking about the future right now, because it’s very uncertain. I’m not that optimistic. Like Valentyn, I’m sure that we will win. But, to be honest, I think that we are already in the first part of the third World War… I’m afraid that it will take years and years. It has totally changed the world we had before.”
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