Ukraine: A Country at Rough Cut Stage

I have posted several texts on Ukraine and the brave filmmakers there. Here is one more after contact with Dar’ya Averchenko and Roman Bondarchuk. The two of them have taken part in the admirable work “Euromaidan. Rough Cut”, which is a final film and NOT a rough cut.

This is what Roman Bondarchuk wrote to me: The name  of the project is Euromaidan. Rough Cut.  But actually it is not a rough cut but a completed project. In this case ‘rough cut’ is a concept, a metaphor. At the moment the Maidan and all movements it has launched still are not over and you can say the whole country is on the stage of rough cut now…

A clever thought and a clever film, that has the presence and the passion of the moment. Ready to be shown at festivals all over…

However, renowned Sergei Loznitsa premiered his “Maidan” in Cannes, 134 minutes, great reviews in Variety and Hollywood Reporter, and that will unfortunately influence the distribution of the omnibus film made by the young Ukranian filmmakers, who lived at Euromaidan. Festivals tend to go for names, don’t they?

Or will you? Why not both films, dear festival programmers. I have not seen Loznitsa’s

work but from the descriptions I can see that it is quite different in approach… also knowing Loznitsa’s always clinical method where “Euromaidan. Rough Cut” is the totally opposite of being clinical.

An edited short description from Dar’ya Averchenko:  Three months of revolution. From indignant protest to national unity. From pots on their heads to batons and body armour. From the euphoria of victory to the mourning of the fallen Heavenly Hundred. Revolution as an explosion of revived dignity, as the euphoria of freedom, as the pain of awareness at the cost, as the birth of the modern history of Ukraine… we asked the directors who were filming the Ukrainian protest to share their best shots with us – in a rough cut, just as they were… We took one or two episodes from each director and put them in chronological order, adding short intertitles between the episodes to show the context…

As you see from the footage, some of the directors truly risked their lives while shooting. Most of them are young Ukrainian filmmakers, just beginners, for whom shooting those events was far beyond professional interest, but rather their way of dealing with the situation – the possibility of getting involved in the most suitable way. This fact adds another dimension to the whole collection: their burning passion brought the authors as close as possible, then drew on their natural documentary ability to observe without judgement, finally resulting in a unique and stunning chronicle of the Ukrainian protests. Experience the three months of struggle with us, feel and see the revolution through our eyes!

Get your festival show this film, the opening title of DocyDays Kiev 2014.

Ukraine, 60 mins. several directors