Cannes Triumph
Something has happened which no one has expected. For the first time in Ukrainian filmmaking history a Ukrainian production has won the Palme d’Or at the prestigious Cannes festival.
Ihor Strembitsky’s 10 min. black and white Wayfarers was named the best short film. The author is a 32-year-old student shortly to graduate from the faculty of cinematography, Karpenko-Kary Cinema, Theater and Television University. He studied under the able guidance of Serhiy Bukovsky currently ranking with the best Ukrainian documentalists.
Strembitsky’s road to this head-spinning success was perfectly trivial and characteristic of Ukraine’s anticinematographic environment. He worked on the Wayfarers for three years, not only because he polished every scene, every frame (he did, of course), but also because the alma mater couldn’t even supply him with a reel of adequate quality film. In the end, after numerous requests, he received several short lengths of film, each with different technological characteristics, meaning that putting them together was very difficult. To make things worse, he had problems getting a cameraman. Talent, however, can find a way out of a most incredible situation. Ihor did the cameraman’s work and came up with a refined and philosophically saturated picture. What followed can be best described as a Hollywood instant success story. Ihor’s wife who was his producer and script writer, took the film, went to the central post office, had it packaged and paid UAH 20.00 for sending it to Cannes.
Yet this was not the end of collisions. At the festival they discovered that the film “generously” supplied by the university had a bad soundtrack. To the organizers’ credit, a team of technicians was assigned to cope with the problem. They worked through the night and fixed the soundtrack. We all know the spectacular result.
Journalism is a nasty profession... Somehow I’m reminded of a refrain from a song done by the rock group Tartak: “I don’t want to be a hero of Ukraine, / My country doesn’t praise heroes...” In other words, I can only hope that Ihor will receive enough money and good film for the next production, and that our numerous bureaucrats in charge of culture and philanthropists will respond to his requests quickly and effectively. If they don’t change their habitual I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude, then perhaps the European Union will be kind enough to forward a grant or two. I really hope so.
But this will come later. Now is the time for congratulations. A great job, Ihor! Thanks a lot.
PS. Our director’s victory was marked with a most curious incident which had been immediately highlighted by Russian media. Ihor delivered his acceptance speech in his mother tongue. The interpreter refused to translate this phrase, pleading the lack of knowledge of the Ukrainian language. Ihor refused to do this, reasonably observing that, being a Ukrainian, he would speak his native language. There is no need to quote the Russian media’s comments on this incident: nobody needs to repeat once again these chauvinistic commonplaces. However, The Day will return this subject.
