The cruel optimism of My Joy

The Day has repeatedly written about Serhii Loznytsia’s film My Joy, which has received numerous awards and participated in several international film festivals, including the famous Cannes Film Festival. The rights to show the film in both theaters and on television have been purchased by distributors from 20 countries. The film can already be seen in France and (since February 1) in Germany. Distribution in the US is scheduled for February as well.

We have now learned that in 2011 My Joy will take part in the film festivals in Rotterdam and Trieste (together with a retrospective viewing of Loznytsia’s documentaries), as well as in Istanbul, Dublin, Freiburg, Sofia,Vilnius, and Hong Kong.

The film will appear in Ukraine in the spring of 2011 (the exact number of copies and dates is yet to be approved).

Last year The Day spoke with the creators of the film: producer Oleh Kokhan and director Serhii Lozny­tsia. However, because we believe that the film is not just an important cinematographic event, but also a social one, we continue our discussion about it.

Bohdan BATRUKH, CEO, B&H Film Distribution Company:

“In my view, this movie very clearly shows that the Russian province is mostly non-Christian, or that its Christianity is very shallow. This means that things like morality, or praising sermons ‘against humi­liation,’ which are so typical for the Christian culture, will not work under the local conditions. What is working there is the culture and philosophy of the East, first of all, China and Mongolia, where a person’s humiliation is viewed as a natural occurrence: this is what should happen, and if someone has power they should use it by all means because it’s their natural right. The film clearly shows the ongoing struggle between the external Christianity, which allegedly exists in Russia, and, let’s say, the inner Oriental ethic, which can be found in each person.

“Everyday life in the Russian province is a struggle for life. This can be also observed in Ukraine — in a residual form. Today the country’s leaders maintain that Ukraine is part of the European space, and that morally Ukraine’s entire territory belongs in the Christian civilization; but the relics of Eastern thought are at work here, too, the more so that they have deep roots in the previous political system.

“Although Russia identifies itself as an Orthodox Christian state and may look like one, this is essentially false. Of course, when confronted with this ‘inferiority,’ it becomes nervous.”

Serhii TRYMBACH, film critic:

“First of all, My Joy is cinematography, which is important in these times when cinema has lost its meaning. Secondly, it is a conceptual film which makes or provokes (at least to me) one to dwell on the essential problems of existence, peeping through the photographic reality. My Joy is a film about our life as an eternal repetition of the same things. It is a tragedy which results in despair.

“At one point in time, Nietzsche qualified this recurrence as a manifestation of the ‘will of power.’ Loznytsia brings these very manifestations into focus: on each square foot of our land we can see the struggle for survival, for power over others (if only for a moment, or several). Not only officials and politicians fight for that power… The fact that morality is virtually excluded from everywhere inspires despair, and this also recurs with a dreadful inevitability.

“The film being ambiguous, the reaction is the same — it’s only na­tu­ral. But the perception of the film being anti-Russian is ridiculous. Rubbish! It is just as anti-Ukrainian or even anti-Polish. In this ‘corner’ of Europe everything looks exactly like this. That doesn’t mean that there is nothing else. At the same time, in Ukraine or Russia there is the wonder of the star-studded sky and the miracles of the manifestation of moral law in man (another reference to the philosopher Immanuel Kant). However, this is another story, which I would also like to see.

“I would like the film to create a ripple effect in Ukrainian society. However, our society is so far unable to dwell on the horror lurking inside each of us and in society on the whole. It is so much easier to watch the interminable talk shows, where those clowns of politicians shower one another with fake carrot juice.

“Yet the film will provoke some to dwell on what is happening to us. Time to wake up, ladies and gentlemen! Otherwise, we will be carried to the graveyard of civilization in our sleep. Or are we already being carried there?”

Larysa IVSHYNA, editor-in-chief, The Day:

“While watching My Joy I remembered the quote by the renowned Russian soldier and writer, Viktor Astafiev: ‘Stalin defeated Hitler, but undermined Russia.’

“My Joy is a film about human degradation, a process once launched and still not stopped.

“We are aware of the role of the victory won 65 years ago, we honor and pay the tribute to those who fought for it, but it does not make Stalinism less ugly. Unless we make efforts to disinfect it, the period of ‘decay’ of Stalinism may turn out to be no shorter than that of strontium. Besides, it produces continual mutations which take root in various spheres of social life.

“My Joy is an honest and uncompromising film. It shows what can happen if society is not re-programmed from destruction toward a positive system of values.

“This film is not easy to watch, but it is able to convince the viewer that, when the ordinary conspire against the best, one should be responsible in evaluating social pro­cesses and everything going on around oneself. One should use every effort to stop the degradation. Individuals with a sound system of va-­lues may rescue those that failed to uphold them.

“To a degree, this film is a challenge to each of us. You either accept reality as it is and agree with it, or you will not accept it and aspire to live a different life, thus making every effort to change the world around you. In this sense My Joy is a cruelly optimistic film…”

Serhii PROSKURNIA, director, producer:

“My Joy is as timely as ever, as we have still not rid ourselves of the homo sovieticus syndrome, which eats away at the soul. Loznytsia’s film reflects this problem. We see the story of a young, strong, handsome, and positive person, the so-called positive hero, who in a matter of minutes loses his name, his history, and his own self. Seen against the background of this dreadful history of self-loss, he looks idealistic and naive, what with his life, moral categories, kindness, openness, and defenselessness.

“Of course this is not the first film exposing this bug of homo sovie-ticus, but My Joy shows it in contemporary light. It is a Ukrainian film, of Ukrainian making — a Ukrainian national cultural film product.

“What criticism from Russia can we speak about, if the film was awarded the best director’s prize at Kinotavr [a major Russian film festival. – Ed.]? Yes, one can speak of a certain impact on public opinion, but in the professional film milieu My Joy was highly praised. Suffice it to remember who received best director awards at Kinotavr (the list includes Sokurov, Mikhalkov, and Bondarchuk) in order to realize that Loznytsia already belongs to this elite.

“Is My Joy going to create ripple effect among Ukrainian cinema goers? Well, here something quite unexpected might happen. There is one essential problem here. Paradoxically, it has something to do with the Soviet system of film distribution. Soviet films got larger audien­ces than foreign ones. Not that the Soviet people were so ideologically dazzled, but simply because of patrio­tism. This notion, the viewer’s patriotism, is still at work in such systems as the Polish cinema, where With Fire and Sword got a huge bud­get just for patriotic reasons. And this is without taking foreign distribution into account. My Joy may become just this kind of the patriotic phenomenon for the Ukrai­nian public.”

Yurii MAKAROV, journalist, TV documentary director, author:

“One can speak of My Joy from both a distant and close perspective. The close perspective is as follows: Ukraine participates in making films which draw a worldwide response. The fact that the film was shot in Ukraine is not relevant — in this case, this is a matter of secondary or even tertiary importance.

“On a more general plane, the film is clearly not entirely in line with our local tradition — it is closer to Russian cinematography. It is comparable to several other films made during this decade — about hopelessness and the gap between the real and conventional life of a big city. It even seems to me that to a degree, this film concludes the theme raised at a certain point by Mikhalkov in his Rodnia (Kinfolk) — the senseless existence in the province.

“In this respect, the action might just as well have been set in India, Thailand, or the US. That is to say, geography is not the decisive factor, but rather the loss of sense in what life is. Not individual life, but the sense of life of great communities. It seems to me that after Loznytsia it will be harder to speak on this subject. He has said it all, in fact.

“As for Russia’s reaction to this film… Russia is trying to build its own world, it is groping for a myth about a fair country. The reality is in stark contrast with the myth, and it creates a horrible neurosis. Thus anything reminding one of this discrepancy is also perceived neurotically as libel. This reaction is absolutely in line with the reaction to the so-called chernukha (gruesome stories or films) from 30 or 40 years ago. Still there existed chernukha in the Soviet film industry, and it was just similarly perceived as ‘libel against the existing order,’ although the authors did not question the regime, their works being philosophical abstract generalizations.

“I think that when the film appears in Ukraine, it will not create any ripple effect in society, unfortunately. It will probably be shown in two or three theaters to several hundreds of high-brow intellectuals, and that will be all. Unlike Russia, where social life (albeit distorted and inade-quate) still exists, we don’t have it at all. I cannot remember a single work of art which would cause some commotion on a broad scale in society, not just among several dozens of intellectuals. Besides, our spectator has lost the habit of watching art house movies, so I think that, unfortunately, Lozny­­tsia’s film — an extra­ordinary artistic event, will not become a social one.”