Ukrainian accents at the Berlinale-58 International Film Festival

A few days ago the president of the Berlinale-58 International Film Festival, Dieter Kosslick, had a meeting with Ukraine’s First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko, who arrived for the launch of the Ukrainian Cinema Foundation as the head of the fund’s Board of Guardians.

The Ukrainian Cinema Foundation, together with the Molodist International Film Festival and the Nemiroff Distillery, announced happy hour from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., which took place at Ukraine’s advertising offices at the International European Cinema Market. For those who love Ukrainian cinematography, this was a brilliant occasion for people to mingle and discuss their impressions of the first festival days. Their debates were stimulated by small doses of Nemiroff vodka. Scenes from Mykola Mashchenko’s film Bohdan-Zinovii Khmelnytsky were shown on a large flat liquid-crystal television screen.

The launch of the foundation took place later that evening in the banquet hall of the Hotel Adlon Kempinski, one of the most expensive hotels in Berlin, which is located near the Brandenburg Gates, right in the heart of the city. The hotel is proud of its long history, as this is the place where famous people, including presidents, sheikhs, musicians, and movie stars, usually stay. Kateryna Yushchenko, Vasyl Vovkun, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Andrii Khalpakhchi, head of Ukraine’s new film foundation, and other officials were present at the event. Among the other guests were Andrzej Wajda, the famous Polish film director, Hans Schlegel, a film expert and specialist in Eastern European cinematography, Vladimir Opela, vice-president of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and director of the Czech Film Archive, and Moritz de Hageln, the long-time head of the Berlinale festival crew, who was succeeded in this post by Dieter Kosslick. There were around 200 guests.

After a brief official part Oleh Skrypka, carrying his guitar, went up to the microphone. He got the audience all fired up with his playing and simultaneously acted as DJ. The reception ended with dancing, which shocked the local media representatives, who are familiar with the etiquette of socializing and protocol. The dismantling of time-honored stereotypes was unexpected and will be much talked about.