I think the language question is the most boring issue today. Even before the subject is hinted at, let alone broached, I wince and recoil from it.
True, you can stumble on real treasures on this well-trodden path, sparkles that momentarily light up the darkness and liven up one’s daily routine.
A couple of weeks ago we heard that Kyiv’s Court of Appeal overturned Resolution No. 20 passed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on Jan. 20, 2006, declaring that all foreign films must be dubbed into Ukrainian or have subtitles. Well, this is nothing new, it’s the usual story. But the situation became much more interesting when we learned about the reactions of some public figures.
Now please read carefully, relishing every word. Our Ukraine’s MP Viacheslav Kyrylenko intends to recommend the government to challenge the ruling of the Kyiv Court of Appeal. Kyrylenko argues his point with gravity: “...it [the cabinet resolution] does not prohibit any other languages in the film industry, Russian or any other, but it also permits Ukrainian to be used.” Stifling our giggles, let us start asking some rhetorical questions.
It would be interesting to know whether Kyrylenko’s memory is functioning like the one installed in an obsolete computer. Perhaps he had a system crash when he was issuing that statement — or perhaps he forgot something that he said earlier? This is also understandable. Any system can crash. Or maybe the esteemed parliamentarian is attending extra acting lessons (because he has his main classes at work) and has been given an assignment to act out a one-man sketch, something along the lines of “An Innocent Child’s First Steps in Politics”? If so, he has surely passed this test.
I wonder which of the current members of government will bother with this appeal. Well, just close your eyes and try to visualize someone. Dmytro Tabachnyk? Well, his academic major is a bit different: countersigning rather than filing appeals or simply signing for large amounts of cash. Mykola Azarov? He has about as much to do with Ukrainian culture as with world culture in general. Yanukovych? Kliuiev? Tolstoukhov? Perhaps the entire Party of Regions/Socialist government? Yep, they will up and back the appeal, saying they want films in Ukrainian, and a lot of them.
What a laugh!
But the main laugh is ahead. According to the Hlavred Agency, the Court of Appeal’s ruling was sparked by a statement issued by the Association to Assist the Development of Cinematography in Ukraine. Early this year its president Mykhailo Sokolov complained that “the document on subtitling has exposed distributors to a serious economic blow. We are obliged by the national program to dub films in Ukrainian. But if this is a national program, we should get some subsidies from the state. We are not against dubbing. However, we cannot understand why this national program should be carried out at our expense. Ukraine’s 100 movie theaters receive an average of some 150 million hryvnias’ worth of revenues a year. Out of this sum we pay taxes, wages, and distribution costs. Now they want us to pay another 50 million hryvnias a year for dubbing movies. We can’t afford this!”
Well, I’m afraid I’m going to start hiccupping from every word of this statement. Mark Twain is relaxing; Petrosian is retiring (about time, too).
The Association to Assist the Development of Cinematography in Ukraine? I wonder what kind of cinematography they are developing and in what kind of Ukraine. I must have drifted a long way from our realities because the filmmaking industry in a country beginning with the letter “U,” especially with an organization called by such a highfaluting name, should have begun burgeoning a long time ago.
So, this means we have Ukrainian films? How is this possible when all your copies are shipped here directly from Moscow, bought by Moscow firms, dubbed by Russian actors (often very badly) and are screened in Moscow one or two weeks before they reach us? Does accessing the world market, buying original productions, getting ahead of our competitors, and giving our audiences a pleasant surprise — in other words honoring your commitments as distributors — mean nothing?
Then what kind of development are we talking about-filmmaking in Russia whose market is expanding at the expense of a neighboring country’s? What are you, ladies and gentlemen in the film distribution sphere, busy with? Feeling proud of holding the fort as branches of Russian distribution companies?
Of course, there is nothing you can do, because you haven’t done anything and never will.
