“We want to see a concrete plan of actions”

Last week public activists staged a rally-cum-performance in front of the Kyiv Oblast Administration building, where the Kyiv City Council temporarily holds its sessions. The activists decided to draw attention again to the Zhovten movie theater situation in an unusual way. While during the previous action on October 31 (a photo report is available on Den’s website www.day. kiev.ua) the protesters were dressed in yellow, this time they acted out an improvised destruction of Kyiv’s cultural monuments to show the city authorities that the arson of Zhovten was not an isolated event. The activists had made mockups of the illegally taken-over buildings and the movie theater Zhovten. The performance was played by two actors. One of them ordered the buildings to be torn down and was issuing commands, while the other, a perpetrator, was bashing the facilities, now out of Kyiv’s public control, with a baseball bat. When the perpetrator was about to smash the Zhovten mockup, he was stopped. The activists thus wanted to make it clear that they were not going to give up.

Hostile takeovers are not a novelty for Kyiv. The protest co-organizer Serhii SHCHELKUNOV complains: “Zhovten is only one of many. Recently there was an attempt to seize the Kyiv Art Gallery in Podil. Also on the receiving end was recently a residential building at 23 Sofiivska St. near the Maidan. It was set on fire, renovation work is being slowed down, and the investigator, who was to track down the arsonists, was told to take a month-long vacation. The same applies to Hostynny Dvir, Murashko’s Manor, and a building on Shovkovychna Street. In general, arsons are a routine practice for raiders, which has now assumed an unprecedented rate.”

The activists’ previous demands to the authorities, including a transparent investigation into the arson and restoration of the theater in its original shape, turned out to be declarative and were not conducive to concrete steps. So, now the protesters decided to take a tougher approach to the problem.

“Firstly, we are saying that when money comes from the insurance company, it should be utilized directly for the theater’s reconstruction rather than go to Kyiv’s overall budget. Secondly, we want to see a concrete plan of actions to fund the theater’s restoration. What we got last time was just a stream of chats, whereas we want the city authorities to take concrete steps. We also insist that a public cultural space be created around the movie theater. Besides, we are planning to work out a mechanism which could protect Kyiv’s cultural and historical monuments from hostile takeovers,” Shchelkunov says.

The movie theater Zhovten is today far from being restored and able to function on a full scale. According to Liudmyla Gordeladze, the director of Kinoman Ltd., only a tentative assessment of losses has been made. Clearing the rubble will be the next stage. Only then will it be possible to fully assess what should be renovated in the theater and in what condition the overhead covers are. With repairs to start in March, the building will be mothballed in winter.