“I won’t let [them] kill my brother!”

25-year-old Oleksandr Tkachuk from Bukovyna has joined the Ukrainian army as a volunteer and he also makes photos when he has some free time. Recently during his leave he made a debut in video art. The touching patriotic video to Maryna Tymofiichuk’s song “I won’t let [them] kill my brother!” is the first work directed by Oleksandr. This video  is being quickly spread on social media.

Oleksandr, how did the idea to shoot a video emerge?

“Good ideas emerge all of a sudden. During my leave I met with Maryna, and she asked me to visualize one of her songs. The young singer wrote this song at the beginning of the Revolution of Dignity, after the beatings of students. Later she sang it at Chernivtsi Maidan. Although time has passed, the words ‘I won’t let [them] kill my brother’ remain very topical, and lately they have become more real and closer to every Ukrainian. The first intention was to shoot several scenes where she sings and supplement them with footage from ATO. But later I decided that it would be     better to make a video which will show understandable symbols rather than blood, death, and war, because I think that, unfortunately, Ukrainian audience cannot be touched by this.”

Please, tell us in more detail about the symbolism you have added to this video sequence?

“First of all, it is the field and the land, which have been the most important things for Ukrainians since ancient times. This is the source of energy, symbol of freedom and wealth, and something without which we wouldn’t have been ourselves. It is not accidental that the video is black-and-white, because I think that during the war there are no other colors. There is white and black, good and evil, defender and enemy, truth and lies, life and death. It is not accidental that the color of the costumes of the main characters is white, because this is above all a symbol of cleansing.”

Probably, your character with Cossack’s forelock is one of the symbols. Did you make this hairdo specifically for the video?

“I have been wearing it for nearly two years, I decided to grow a forelock long before the rise of the wave of patriotism. I had an inner feeling and need. I wanted to make a forelock back in school time, in senior classes, but I didn’t dare, and with time I grew up to this idea. This is not just a hairdo, but a system of views.”

It is expensive to make a video. Where did you find the funding?

“We did everything on our own. The song was written and recorded, we had the idea and total vision of the video, the only thing remained to find a cameraman. I phoned my colleague, Ivan Morarash, with a creative proposal, and he without long contemplations took his shooting equipment and started to work. We even were lucky, because our friends borrowed us a quadrocopter, which we used to shoot scenes from above.”

How long did it take you to realize the idea?

“The process starting with the conceiving of the idea till its complete realization was very quick: it took us less than 48 hours to accomplish it. In the morning Maryna told me about the idea to make a video, for several hours we discussed the plot, then we called Ivan, and started to look for a needed location. Next morning at 5 a.m. we started to solve the organization moments and we went to the shooting site. The shooting lasted from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m., and at night it took us four hours to do the editing. Next day we sent invitations to journalists and friends, and a day later a presentation was held.”

Your leave is over and you are back to service. How hard is it to be a soldier for a photo artist?

“At first it was hard to rebuild your psychics, but I’m a quick adapter. The hardest thing is to be a commander without any experience. I used to be the commander of only a camera, and now a platoon of mostly older men is under my command.”

Have your brothers-in-arms seen the video?

“No, they haven’t, but they will see it soon, because that was the reason why we shot it. I’m sure that art in a war time, especially in the front, is what waters down the dark routine of sorrow and gunpowder and inspires one to win.”