Bohdan Stupka conquers Rome... With a Warm Heart

Although Romes hosted the Internal Film Festival only for the third time, critics believe it is a worthy rival to the oldest cinema forum in Venice. Upholding the best traditions of major festivals, such as the red carpet, top world stars, and the jury consisting of reputable cinema critics, the Rome event has confined itself to just four prizes: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, and the Audience Award. This forum has seen in different years such celebrities as Francis Ford Coppola, Kirill Serebrianikov, Al Pacino, and Gina Lollobrigida. Ukraine presented at the Rome show, which has just come to an end, the film With a Warm Heart (original tile: Serce na dloni), a Ukraine-Poland joint production by the famous philosopher director Krzysztof Zanussi. The movie won popular acclaim, with the audience giving it an almost 15-minute standing ovation. Bohdan Stupka became a recognizable person on the streets of the Eternal City. The jury and the press did not remain indifferent either. Almost all the national media were full of emotional and complimentary comments on the film itself and the performance of our great actor. Ater watching 20 competing films, the jury awarded Bohdan Stupka the Marc’Aurelio Silver Award for Best Actor.

“This is the first time Ukraine participates in such a high-profile cinema forum, with a film produced jointly with Poland,” said Oleh Kokhan, the coproducer of the film and the president of SOTA Cinema Group. “I thank my lucky stars for giving me a chance to meet such a superb master as Krzysz­tof Zanussi. Working with him is an honor, learning experience, and a great joy. And the most important thing is that the film With a Warm Heart has helped our country to successfully assert itself as an equal member of the world cinema community.”

Much to his regret, the director witnessed neither the triumph of his favorite actor nor the thunderous applause. Za­nus­si had arrived in Rome from Novosibirsk (the trip took about 10 hours), where he is staging a production at a local theater, and, after talking to journalists and without waiting for the end of festival screenings, flew back for the premiere. This is the rhythm the master lives in.

Although With a Warm Heart is defined as a drama, I would not advise the viewer to take it literally. It is a subtle philosophical parable about the meaning of life, good and evil, and a search for spiritual principles that have been lost in the heat of the struggle for survival. At first glance, everything is grossly exaggerated here-wealth, cynicism, evil, an obsessive striving for suicide, love, and career. But when you follow all the peripeteia of the plot to the end, you come to understand the main thing: it is never too late to begin to do good.

Zanussi, who has also co-authored the script, thus comments on the plot, “To achieve his goal, i.e., to obtain of a heart for a transplantation, an old cynical millionaire proclaims the principle of denying all values and a program of complete relativism which obliterates the meaning of life as such. But the heroes swap their roles in the finale: the rich man gets back to life and decides to change it. The suicide discovers positive values and finds out that he is capable of loving. Meanwhile, the viewer should consider whether the declared relativism is a dangerous trap that catches a lot of stray souls. The project touches upon such issues as the meaning of life and thoughtless denial of a gift that is beyond human comprehension.

Stupka’s acting in the film is, as always, extremely precise and full of colorful details. He never sticks to a pattern and introduces such neat touches into every role, cut, and close-up that you begin to sincerely believe that the actor’s dream of winning an Oscar will come true.

“Those four days in Rome were unforgettable,” Stupka said to The Day. “I managed to roam the Eternal City, mingle with fellow filmmaker from various countries, and introduce our movie. I am very happy that the jury highly appreciated the film and my performance in it. When I received the prize, I said jokingly to foreign journalists, ‘Now they are going to call me Marcus, not Bohdan, Stupka.’

“This made many media people laugh, and a female journalist asked quite seriously, ‘And are you going to change your last name for Aurelius?’ What can I say to this? Naturally, it would be very tempting to adopt a new stage name and try on the shoes of one of the Antonines, the famous Roman imperial dynasty, and a follower of late Stoicism, but I am so much used to my surname.

“On the other hand, when I was once filming in the US, I had to ‘work’ a few times for Robert De Niro. The thrilled Americans would ask me for an autograph and say that I was their favorite actor, but they called me De Niro. Of course, I tried to explain to them that they were mistaken but I failed to convince them. So I would sign as Stupka but add ‘Ukrainian De Niro’ in parentheses.

“I am happy that life has granted me another chance to work on a set with such a great master as Krzysztof Zanussi (our first joint work was the Polish televised version of Jean Anouilh’s play The Lark) and that the film With a Warm Heart helped our country make a name for itself at such a prestigious cinema forum as the Rome Festival. The festival was a truly top-level event under the patronage of Rome’s Mayor Walter Veltroni.

“I keep, as a token of the Rome Festival, not only the prize but also numerous photos, including those with the gorgeous Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida who won, together with American Al Pacino, the Golden Marc’Aurelio Acting Award for a special contribution to cinema. Incidentally, these movie idols are ordinary people without any idiosyncrasies of a star, and it is very pleasant to mingle with them.”

Mr. Stupka, you have already conquered the Euro­pean audience, now there is only one peak left to climb — Holly­wood’s Oscar.

“I already have a cute little statue in my study which looks very much like an Oscar from behind. Some friends presented me with it just as a joke but accompanied it with an earnest wish that I would win a genuine prize from the U.S. Motion Picture Academy. Let me say this: I am approaching this peak. I keep filming and, who knows, at some point I may get an Oscar for one of my new roles. I can’t say an Oscar is my lifetime dream, but if I win this prize, I will naturally be glad.”