Ukraine Boasts Not Only Corruption, Chornobyl and Soccer

France will witness from September 16 through October 15 the Est-Ouest (East-West) Festival of Ukrainian Culture which will include, in addition to the traditional movie, theatrical, and musical events, meetings with well-known literati and philosophers.

In the small town of Dey, Yuri Ilienko, Leonid Finberg, and Myroslav Popovych will take part in conferences and debates, while Yuri Kuznetsov, Tetiana Boyeva, Enver Izmailov, Roman Hrynkiv, Nina Matviyenko, and the Mertvy Piven (Dead Rooster) will give concerts in churches and cafes. Ukraine's modern photography will be represented by Marta Kuzma, and Kira Muratova and Oleh Fialko will hold a retrospective show of films by Serhiy Paradzhanov, Ivan Mykolaichuk, and Leonid Osyka. The Suzirya (Constellation) Theater will stage a one-woman show Pheadra with Larysa Kadyrova. A Salon of Books will open, attended by a renowned writer Andriy Kurkov, while Volodymyr Chertkov and Svitlana Aleksiyevych will talk about the Chornobyl catastrophe. In addition, the journal Esprit and the Embassy of France in Ukraine will hold in Paris a humanitarian colloquium on the problems of culture, history, and politics in Ukraine. The festival was made possible thanks to sponsorship of the International Renaissance Foundation and Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

Many materials of this festival will also be presented in a special Internet web-site (http://www.est-ouest.com).