Young director Kostiuk was previously known as a musician and actor, but this summer he presented his debut feature-length documentary about the Carpathian sheep farmers, called The Living Fire. A fragment of his directing work, shown at the ArtPole festival in Unizh in Ivano-Frankivsk region, got the audience interested. The premiere of this poetic documentary will be held in October. The Day questioned the director about adventures that befell the film crew in the Carpathians, and about prototypes of the characters of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors’ life in the 21st century.
“Nowadays, we appreciate healthy foods, endorse good treatment of animals, but do not do anything to save the environment-friendly industries, in particular sheep farming, even though we know that they are disappearing,” Kostiuk said. “We would like to see our film to draw attention to it, to support people in this line of work and to show how hard they have it in the modern world. Why cheese made out of palm oil can be more expensive than bryndza sheep milk cheese, made by hand and using an ancient recipe? This is a problem of our world, the problem of choice, and the world fails to emphasize what should be emphasized.”
Would you, please, tell us about the area where the shooting took place?
“It is in Kosiv and Verkhovyna raions of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, respectively the village of Babii, where a boy named Ivanko lives, and Verkhovyna where the old Ivan lives. However, their workplace, where they go with the sheep, is 120 kilometers away at the Radul meadow where the Stih Mountain overlooks the tripoint of Romania, Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Our film crew followed them on this path throughout four years of the filming. This place is the only remaining mountain valley that still admits herds to pasture. Vasyl Toniuk is the leader of that community, and people call him ‘the Councilor,’ because he enjoys the people’s confidence and is responsible for the village’s herds. He rents the field and lets the herds graze there. He has eight helpers at the season’s start, the number then decreases if someone has to go home, but there are always no less than five of them. We found three characters for the film and became interested in their lives. There is old Ivan Besashchuk, aged 83, then there is a middle aged man called Vasyl, he is 37, and there is the boy Ivanko, who is 10 years old. That is, we were observing how people live, in our case the sheep farmers, in their life cycle.”
It is known that Sergei Parajanov’s legendary Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors were filmed in Verkhovyna raion. How did you find the characters of your film?
“We did not choose our characters, we just approached those who remained there, though there are a few more sheep farmers in other parts of Zakarpattia. Young and old Ivans look very similar, but we did not choose them. The old man talked a lot about his childhood, while the boy looked forward to the future and wanted to grow up quickly. They both make up an image of one man. Dreams of the young Ivan transform into the old Ivan’s recollections...
“Sheep farming is not really a business, because it does not bring much profit. It is like an art, where one can just break even, but continues to do it, because it is impossible to stop. However, Vasyl does not want to work in some other field. He keeps the sheep, this is his life. His story runs throughout the film, while Ivanko is his godson...
“We understand that the young Ivan has to choose between an easier fate or continue in his ancestors’ steps, but when we see that he is working under difficult conditions, we take pity on him, because he is still a child. He earns money, buys school uniforms, exercise books, and by the way, has purchased a mobile phone. His summer holidays are full of work without even a day off. The boy finds it hard to get up at five in the morning, and he wants to sleep all the time.
“The narrator of the film is the old sheep farmer Ivan, who has his own dream, and we followed his dream, as you will see in the film. The old man herded sheep almost all his life, starting under his father. He had a wife, who died three years ago, and he now sits alone in the house, although there are grandchildren and children somewhere, but they are always away... He calculated that out of 52 years of their marriage, they only lived together for 3 years! He was in a maelstrom of his own making, spent all his time with the sheep away in a mountain valley, while the sheep farmer’s wife, like the wife of a sailor, was always waiting for her husband.”
Were there any adventures during the filming?
“It was an adventure through and through! It started with the fact that we arrived there in the summer... and suddenly the snow fell. Our car towed a trailer loaded with sheep that had had their legs broken. Everything is unexpected there, because moving a herd is a difficult task. They had 1,000 sheep, 150 cows and a few horses. Our sheep farmer characters were always in some kind of adventure, in the struggle. Ukraine is in a difficult situation now, because there is a war in the East, while our film The Living Fire shows that sheep farming requires courage without war. They struggle with life misadventures, unruly animals, extreme weather events.
“It is a survival experience, there is a military-like discipline there! The filming lasted for a long period, and it created a problem. After all, it is necessary to keep a distance, not to interfere. Our characters gradually become accustomed to the cameras first.”
How did you choose the music for the film?
“Our film is a documentary pastoral. Interestingly, shepherd melodies are the most ancient in the entire Hutsul music tradition. They convey the importance of the lonely human habitation in the mountains. Sheep farming is an old way of life, people lived this way in the past, and their working conditions have not changed. Composer Alla Zahaikevych from Kyiv wrote music for the film, as she has a lot of film music in her portfolio. We brought her to these places for inspiration. The film has no narration, allowing us to be closer to the characters, so the music conveys some meanings as well. Zahaikevych recorded a quartet with her students, and the song I Go to the Carpathians was sung by lads on the street, accompanied by an accordion. The film includes also her electronic music pieces and Hutsul folk tunes performed on telinka flute which we recorded with Yara Arts Group for the Christmas Carol CD. It also features recitatives, folk songs, and a funeral trembita trumpet tunes. By the way, it is an old tradition to play trembita at funerals, and use it to signal events on the meadow.
“Our film is a story about a male job, however, the woman is always present in the world of its characters (in memories, dreams, partings and meetings). We can say that there are two fireplaces: the men’s one, associated with this high-risk job, and the women’s one, also known as the family hearth, and there is a conflict between them. However, Ivan wants to return to his mother, Vasyl to his wife, and the old Ivan to his wife, who is waiting for him already on the other side of life...”
