Stage Prop Cinema

The opening of the Stozhary (The Pleiades) international movie actors' festival in Kyiv on October 11 was planned under the motto “Action!” Everybody present — participants, guests, jury, sponsors, even viewers — was supposed to play a certain part.

They viewers were the first to fail; the audience filled up slowly, and the past festival's packed house two years back seemed a distant memory. Above all, too few actors were in evidence, people for whom the whole thing was organized thanks to the Herculean efforts of Nina Ilyina and her associates. It seemed that by now most Ukrainian actors had lost all illusions about stepping into the limelight before the camera ever again. Hence their passivity and lack of interest in their colleagues (something that does not easily be reconciled with professionalism) and festivities as such. Also, the opening ceremony lacked the festive atmosphere and the emcee's anecdote about two rats breakfasting on a roll of film in a film library, saying “The script tasted better,” caused the audience to feel somewhat embarrassed rather than laugh. The whole thing looked dull, painfully resembling the situation in Ukrainian cinematography. And there were scenes that required no comment. For example, when Oleh Borysov's widow Alla Romanivna was presented the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Prize for her husband's role as Holokhvasty, and when they announced the laureates of the prize “For Outstanding Acting Merits -Pole Daniel Olbrichski and Serb Batu Zivajinovic. Finally, it was fun watching cheerful and handsome actors smash a dish according to an old theatrical tradition, signifying the festival's opening. One can only hope that Kyiv audiences will show more interest in Stozhary. The cinema deserves it.