One more expectation
Every now and then, announcements about splashy projects accompany the very cautious and timid enlivening of the filmmaking process in Ukraine. Last week the cinematographic community was told about the latest studio paradise.
This time grandiose plans were announced by the team of producers responsible for Orangelove, the first full-length Ukrainian commercial film and the first film on the Orange Revolution: brothers Oleksandr and Viacheslav Konstantynovsky, Alina Panova, and Volodymyr Khorunzhy, the son of the writer Anatoliy Khorunzhy, Kyiv-born and bred, who left Ukraine in the early 1980s.
At a joint press conference they shared their plans for the construction of a new film studio complex not far from Kyiv. They have already purchased 50 hectares for the complex, which will have 12 shooting studios, a recording studio for a symphony orchestra and choir, as well as tape-processing and digital scanning labs, and a linear dubbing complex. In other words, they will create a full production cycle whereby films will be shot, edited, and copied without having to go to Moscow, Prague, or Poland. In a word, they will be realizing a dream long cherished by Ukrainian film directors.
According to the project heads, 100 million dollars have been invested. Viacheslav Konstantynovsky says construction will last two and a half years. Studio capacities will become operational in stages, meaning that the complex will start functioning even before its official opening. The project’s budget includes the construction of a studio and several films that will be made there. Konstantynovsky and Khorunzhy confirmed that they have very serious US partners, but they also hope the government will help: “We must speak in unison with all government bodies...cooperation is needed...” As far as I understand, the latter obviously implies certain benefits for the project participants.
All these plans paint a very bright picture. The studios will undoubtedly earn profits from making foreign blockbusters, and the fees that domestic filmmakers will be paying for using the equipment will be lower than for commercial groups with big budgets. Personnel training programs are envisaged, and studio personnel will gradually become wholly Ukrainian. This is an especially important point because this is how they are expecting to revive the filmmaking professions, which have in fact disappeared because of the physical departure of various film professionals. A special program designed for Ukrainian film directors will also be featured. There will be additional projects, like building extra office space and a thematic entertainment complex.
Asked what made successful businessmen like them undertake such a thankless project, the Konstantynovsky brothers replied that they are persevering enough to allow themselves such a risk and that they are generally accustomed to taking risks. Besides, they like to be trailblazers and want to do something that will have social significance.
But the question remains open. Any large-scale construction in our country, especially around the capital city, is an extreme event affecting the interests of so many influential groups that it looks like a war even before any building begins. If you read between the glowing lines of their press release, you can see not so much the contours of the future studio as the invincible ranks of both Kyiv and national bureaucratic structures with their endless paperwork, authorizations, inspections, and thoroughly (purely, to be more exact) concrete behind-the-scenes appetites, not to mention the fact that building workshops is only half the battle. Filling them with the required funds and specialists is as hard as the construction work. Will insolvent Ukrainian filmmakers truly be able to afford the rental fees?
Of course, we would like to rejoice for all of us, now that we will finally have our own moviemaking complex. I hope very much that this will be so. But our thrice-cursed epoch of changes continues, and many a ship of good intentions has crashed on its rusty cliffs. All that’s left is to make the ritual remark: We’ll see in two and a half years. We will not yield to temptation, but if the declared plans are implemented, we will do our best to help, won’t we?
