The public are worried about the destiny of the world famous Yalta Film Studio, which was created in 1919 as a result of merging of private enterprises that belonged to Oleksandr Khanzhonkov and Yosyf Yermoliev, since the film production fell into decay in 1999. A total absence of financing led the dream factory to a complete bankruptcy.
It seemed that creating a joint Russian and Ukrainian close corporation Yalta-Film would become a turning point since it attracted new investors, and a hope for the revival of film production in the Crimea gleamed. A few directors have got down to work immediately. Overall 42 films were added to the studio’s archives. Among them are ones that collected numerous awards, like 72 Meters by Volodymyr Khotynenko, A Driver for Vera by Pavlo Chukhrai, Happy and Sad Moments of a Little Lord by Ivan Popov, Poisons by Karen Shakhnazarov, I Am a Doll by Yurii Kara, Barbarians directed by Chris Sivertson (US) and Evgeny Mitrofanov (Russia), Carmen by Oleksandr Khvan, Russian Decameron by Yurii Pavlov, I Will Be Back, a documentary on Mikhail Bulgakov, by Heorhii Natanson, and Moscow Saga by Dmitry Borshchevsky. Besides, the studios offered a range of services to makers of documentary films and video clips from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the US. And that one was a source of stable income.
Everyone sighed in relief, there was nothing to be alarmed about, since the reorganization was based on a serious document, the resolution by the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea No. 801-2/99 “On the Measures of Stabilization and Improvement of the Activities of the Crimean Public Film Studio Yalta-Film.”
“This resolution stated that the Crimean Property Fund was commissioned to become founder of the new structure based on a state enterprise,” says former legal adviser of the studio Yevhen Solomenny. “It was provided that the Crimean Property Fund will own the controlling stock. On April 28, 2000, the Property Fund issued an order on the creation of a close corporation Yalta-Film jointly with the Russian Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support to National Cinematography. And in two weeks, on June 15, a new order was issued. It stated that since the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support to National Cinematography was liquidated, limited liability company Polikom-West was to become the constitutor. We examined the documentation and found out that the Russian fund had never been liquidated, since the moment it was created, in January, 1995, and until it was reorganized on December 31, 2009. It is nothing else but fraud.
It is up to the authorities to figure out how the Crimean Property Fund lost the controlling stock to the Russian investments company Polikom-West, so the close corporation Yalta-Film become a 100 percent Russian equity. And figuring this out is the most urgent matter, just like clarifying what happened afterwards.
According to Valerii Pavlotos, the oldest member of the studio and chairman of the Crimean Division of the National Union of Cinematographers, by Decision No. 138 of June 3, 2004, made by Yalta City Council, on July 13, 2004 the prime minister of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych issued an order No. 474-p, allowing the sale of 15.2 hectares of land to the close corporation Yalta-Film. Therefore, it was sold to a Russian owner, which had not yet taken part in the “stabilization and improvement” of the enterprise. That order emphasized that the land should be used “for construction and operation of the production and technical base of the film studio.”
As it turned out, nobody was going to fulfil the directions given in the order.
“In 2005 Polikom-West sells the historical property of the film studio along with the three antique buildings that were constructed in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, and were not included in the registry of monuments on time. It was sold to the LLC Razbudova-Hrad, and now the buildings are under the threat of demolition,” Solomenny says. “We have found out that when the three-storied office building with a total area of 2,000 square meters was given to Polikom-West, it was priced at 24,000 dollars. It is the price of a two-room apartment at that time. And there are about 40 buildings like this one. The only result from appealing to the authorities was a message ‘Inspection is being carried out.’ Neither the staff nor the city community, that has been raising the alarm for a long time, have been informed about the results of this inspection.”
Now there is a plate “Prive property, no tresspassing” with an image of a dog’s snout hanging on the entrance gate to the oldest film company in downtown, at 4 Sevastopolska Street.
About 200 world famous members of the film company staff got let out of things and were fired. One of the people who got kicked out in the street is Anna Kuznetsova, this year’s nominee to the Golden Eagle award in “The Best Costume Design” category for the movie Master and Margarita. This is not the first success by Yalta film makers. Four years ago a Golden Eagle was won by the sound producer Volodymyr Litrovnyk for the arrangement of Admiral by Andrei Kravchuk. And before that he had won Russian Nika for his work in Ostrov by Pavel Lungin. All this did not stop the new owners of the Yalta film company from firing him because of his “unsuitability for the occupation.”
Unique equipment and stage scenery, exclusive collections of historical costumes are gathering dust on the shelves. The best pool in the CIS for combination shooting, studio of decorative and technical construction, repair and mechanical workshops are abandoned, the scenery on the unique nature sites are decaying. The new owners are determined to build luxury homes instead.
“We have a copy of the general development plan, which shows 73 mansions nicely ‘growing’ on the nature shooting sites on Polikurovsky Hill,” says Hryhorii Taranenko, chairman of the the Greater Yalta Civic Committee.
Just as a reminder: the participants of the National Union of Cinematographers’ plenary meeting, held in Kyiv on March 31, 2011, decided to press for the re-assignation of the Yalta Film Studio to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and petitioned the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to thoroughly examine the facts of outrageous violation of the Crimean Verkhovna Rada’s decision “On the Measures of Stabilization and Improvement of the Activities of the Crimean Public Film Studios Yalta-Film,” the change of the special purpose status of the film studio’s real estate. Russian cinematographers, too, expressed their concern in relation to this matter.
There is one revealing moment. This summer the International Film Forum “Razom” presented the city with yet another sculptural gift: a monument to the founder of domestic cinematography Oleksandr Khanzhonkov. The statue was supposed to decorate the entrance to the film studios on Sevastopolska Street, in lieu of the symbolic stone on the sidewalk. But the new owner of the premises did not allow to do this. The stone still sits on the street, but the inscription is sawn off. Now it is sitting their behind the lopsided fence, like a signature of the city’s real boss. Perhaps that is why that boss has let it stay.
The film studio has changed its name and status more than once. In 1957 it was named the Yalta Feature Film Studio. In 1963 it was made a subsidiary of the Maxim Gorky Film Studio for the Youth and Children. In 1991 it regained independence and was named the Crimean Film Studio Yalta-Film. Since 2000 it has been named JSC Yalta Film Studio.
One of the former CEOs, film director Valerii Pendrakovsky had his own vision of the rescue measures for the studio: “You have to shoot two full-length films per year, on your own. The seven-year investment plan presupposes direct investment of 1.9 billion US dollars. By January 1, 2008 we should draw 17 million dollars. The first returns of 60,000 dollars should be expected in 2003. By the end of 2007, the gains will increase more than sevenfold (7.5 times, more exactly), and will constitute 450,000 dollars a year. The studio’s payments to budgets of all levels will reach four million dollars.” But this was not to come true.
Thus we can see our common heritage being destroyed right before our eyes.
However, the incumbent CEO of the film studios (or more exactly, of what is left of the company) believes that nothing is the matter, and there is nothing to worry about:
“This is a private enterprise, and it is up to the stakeholders to decide how many jobs they need to keep. Now we have 23 employees on staff, and this is quite enough to render services of renting out stage scenery, costumes, and props (should there be any demand for them). At present, no film are being made at Yalta studio. The House of the Sun in 2010 was the last picture. If the situation changes, we will take more staff on.”
Could you name your stakeholders and help us contact them, so we could get a proof or disproof of their intention to develop Polikurovsky Hill and make it into a luxury neighborhood?
“I have no such authority.”
Well, a CEO of a private company is a dependent entity, we can just feel for him. However, if people have honest intentions and keep their promises, they have no reason to hide. There was a time when Moscow stakeholders, the Arshinov brothers, did not hide. They made numerous promises in public, at press conferences in Yalta, to do their best to restore the film studio and make it into a profitable company. They even managed a festival, but later they invited a Russian producer, director of Interfest, Renat Davletiarov. After two disheartening attempts to “cultivate” the Crimean steppes, held without any support from state, he found a win-win option and started Russian film festivals in New York, Paris, and Berlin. Meanwhile the Arshinov brothers have been keeping a low-key profile, hoping that no one will sue them for the crash of the film studio.
It is very hard to believe that the initiative, aimed to restore the film studio in the national ownership, will succeed. However, Serhii Tsekov, chairman of the Standing Committee on Culture at the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea, is more optimistic about it:
“We are not going to put up with the death of the film studio. Now we are developing several plans to prevent the unscrupulous shareholders’ improper plans (if you will put it so mildly). One of these plans is related to the Russian Federation’s state structures and entrepreneurs, who will be able to purchase the stakes and preserve the purpose of the Yalta Film Studio via developing a joint Ukraine-Russia project for the restoration and development of the film industry in the Crimea. We remember how the historical Chekhov Theater was collapsing, and how it was saved by the Russian banker Aleksandr Lebedev. He restored it, and not only revived the tours of Russia’s best theater companies of actors, but also established a theater festival. This is a worthy example to follow.
“There is another, more rigorous scenario: to terminate the contract with the stakeholders, who have failed to observe its main provision, the development of film industry in Yalta. That is to say, they are misusing the enterprise.”
Yalta mayor Oleksii Boiarchuk, who offered his comments of the situation on the local radio station, is of the same opinion: “If investment agreements are not respected, we must do everything to declare them void, and abrogate them.” The mayor also said that he had had a meeting with the present owners of the film studio, and they explained their policy by losses, which they incur due to the fact that “lots of films are shot in the Crimea each year, but no one solicits the services of the studio.” The mayor believes that it is necessary to fight for the studio, but they need support from the cinematographers.
But is there anything to support? The film company has to win back its property, including the historical premises in downtown Yalta. Community itself is not strong enough to accomplish such a feat. But if the authorities of Yalta and Crimea got down to this problem, they would surely succeed. If only they would.
