At 10 a.m. the “Brave Hearts” project presenter Akhtem Seitablaiev, with comfortable trousers and jacket on, drinks a vending-machine coffee near the filming location. The program has moved from the 1+1 TV channel to 2+2, and from now on it will go on the air on Wednesdays – first on April 15. Some time later, Akhtem, now in a fine black suit, will be on screen, trying to find the truth in the dispute between Colonel Valentyn Fedichev, Sector S deputy chief of staff, and the program guests – battalion commanders, reconnaissance men, and machinegun operator. The presenter does not know so far that it will take almost six hours to film a two-hour-long program. The Day went behind the scenes of the filming of “Brave Hearts,” this season’s new project, and came to know the ins and outs of a TV program making.
Extras are invited into the studio. They are told how to behave in front of the camera. “If anybody feels sick of what he sees, give a sign to the moderator,” the audience is told. But a 1+1 employee tries to persuade me that nothing of the sort has ever happened. The project manager does not come out on filming location before the shooting starts. “All film crews are superstitious. They try to contact as few outsiders as possible,” the 2+2 spokesperson says.
Heroes are being waited for in a state of light tension. Some soldiers will be requested not to take off balaclavas in backstage scenes, for they will soon go to the front again. Indeed, when soldiers come in the studio, they first keep aloof, exchanging front-line jokes in a low voice. Many of them will be introduced by nickname or first name, such as “Marat,” “Tick” (Andrii), “Sheva” (Anatolii), “Pete” (Ihor), “Movie” (Roman), “Abrek,” “Mazai.” “Let’s go, we will ‘depersonalize’ you,” program editors and makeup artists say to the men. At this moment, program experts Valentyn Fedichev, Sector S deputy chief of staff, and censor.net chief editor Yurii Butusov appear on the location. A balaclavaed soldier comes up to Butusov who cannot recognize him. So, the man uncovers his face, and the two give a tight embrace to each other. It is a reconnoiterer call-signed as “Marat.” Incidentally, the soldiers who will come to be filmed for the next “Brave Hearts” episode will recognize him even with a balaclava on. “I have his phone number – he helped to evacuate the wounded and the killed,” one of the guys will say, and an awkward silence will hang in the air.
AKHTEM SEITABLAIEV, THE CUSTOMARY PRESENTER OF “BRAVE HEARTS”: “BY MY INNER ESSENCE, I AM AN ACTOR, NOT A PRESENTER. I WAS TAUGHT TO LOOK INTO A SITUATION. BUT HERE I LACK HUMAN STRENGTH SOMETIMES”
Other emotions will bubble during the program itself. Finally, the Sector S deputy chief of staff will have to respond on behalf of all the “tops” – he will be reminded of a 10-day-long full encirclement of Ridkodub (a village in Donetsk oblast) and of the unprotected gaps on the front line, but the soldiers will be particularly outraged when they hear that the surrender of Debaltseve was a “political,” not military, decision.
FRONT-LINE FRIENDS MET ON THE FILMING LOCATION: “MARAT” (LEFT) AND “TICK” (RIGHT) TOOK PART IN A JOINT RECONNAISSANCE OPERATION NEAR DEBALTSEVE. IN THE CENTER IS “SHEVA,” CHIEF OF THE “BALU” CHECKPOINT, WHO LED HIS SOLDIERS OUT OF THE VERY HELL, WHEN THE BOYS HAD TO USE SMALL ARMS IN RESPONSE TO SHELLING BY HEAVY ARMORED VEHICLES
“Experts and guests have a lively dialog. It is not smoothed over and not always agreeable, but we do not set a goal to look agreeable,” says Akhtem SEITABLAIEV, the “Brave Hearts” program presenter. “For this reason, opinions are exchanged in quite an emotional key, for it is a difficult topic, as is life itself. I hear about many heroic exploits and dramatic situations. Sometimes I lack human strength when I look into a situation. I think the pause between the first and the second season allowed me to finally understand that one must restrain their own emotions.”
TNMK BAND FRONTMAN OLEH MYKHAILIUTA (“FAGOT”) SPECIALLY CAME SHORTLY BEFORE THE END OF THE “BRAVE HEARTS” FILMING SESSION TO SING HIS SONG “WHERE YOU ARE NOW.” HE GLADLY HAD PHOTOS TAKEN WITH THE SOLDIERS BEHIND THE SCENES. PICTURED RIGHT: “ABREK” FROM THE DZOKHAR DUDAYEV BATTALION. “YOU MUSTN’T MAKE TERRORISTS OUT OF ALL CHECHENS,” “ABREK” SAYS. “I FOUGHT TOGETHER WITH ISA MUNAYEV, AND I THINK HE DESERVES THE TITLE OF HERO OF UKRAINE”
The boys also restrained their emotions as much as they could. Those who had not yet come out on the filming location were constantly walking out to smoke. But they retained their composure in front of the camera. Yet there were quite a lot of caustic remarks heard behind the scenes. “In the first ‘Brave Hearts’ season, most of the speakers were the heroes, and we saw that there were very many questions to the ATO and army command and the ministry of defense. We were told this off screen because when we were on the air, we mostly focused on patriotism and heroism. In this season we want to invite the leadership to the debate,” says Maksym Shylenko, chief of the Investigative Journalism Department, whom 2+2 has commissioned to prepare a program. “We invited a military prosecutor, but he didn’t show up – perhaps he has nothing to answer. We did not even expect somebody from the ministry of defense to come, but, as you see, there is Valentyn Fedichev in the studio.
SECTOR S DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF VALENTYN FEDICHEV (LEFT) AND CENSOR.NET CHIEF EDITOR YURII BUTUSOV (RIGHT) TALKED ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE FILMING, SOMETIMES SMILING TO EACH OTHER
“I don’t know whether it is thanks to our program or to some parallel processes that many of the heroes who had visited our studio were invited to the ministry of defense as advisors or even fulltime officials. Those who came to the studio from the ATO zone were saying they had a feeling of ‘two worlds’ – the impression was that nobody knew about them in Kyiv, where people go to restaurants and night clubs. Our studio saw the heroes whose exploits official Kyiv failed to notice. But after the program, when we turned directly to the Presidential Administration, they were awarded what they deserved – one man was made Hero of Ukraine and several others were given conspicuous gallantry orders. What we were doing behind the scenes in the first season will be shown on the air in the second one,” Shylenko concluded.
But the boys seek no glory for themselves, they want a different thing. “I don’t care at all about all these shows, I just wanted to come and say the truth,” Anatolii “Sheva” Shevchenko says, drawing on a cigarette after the filming. “It’s true that I didn’t talk much, but the boys said everything. I want people to hear us.” “Is a ‘peaceful’ society prepared for the return of the boys whose hearts the war has burned?” is one of the questions to be asked in the “Brave Hearts” program. But what if we rise above this level and ask a different question – “Is there anyone to be trusted in this war?” The truth has been lost between the maps of the “top brass” and the bombed-out trenches of the “lower ranks.” It is impossible to find it in a two-hour TV program. And what is possible? “We want to spot and discuss the sore points and find out what can be changed fully or partially,” Seitablaiev says. “I think it is right to set a certain behavioral reference frame in this program.” A reference frame is what Ukraine really needs. This is a job for all brave hearts irrespective of TV channels.
