Recently the movie When Will This Wind Stop won in the category “Best Student Documentary” at a prestigious International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). The movie tells about four Crimean Tatar families and the challenges they face, as the peninsula is occupied by Russia. The film was created with the assistance of the Polish Institute of Cinematic Art, Belsat, and Everest Film Studio.
A Ukrainian-Polish shooting crew was working on the film: directors Taras Dron and Angela Astrid and cameraman Oleksandr Pozdniakov. All three of them are recent graduates of the Film School in Lodz. They started to work on the topic immediately after the Revolution of Dignity. They promise to give the cash prize (5,000 euros) to the characters of the film. After the festival tour the film will be screened in the movie theaters of Ukraine and Poland.
For Taras Dron When Will This Wind Stop is the fourth film, but it is his first full-length documentary film. Currently he is finishing a screenplay for a feature fiction film and getting ready for the State Cinema Agency pitching.
Taras, how was the work on When Will This Wind Stop going on? Was it difficult to work under the conditions of occupation?
“At first, for a long time we communicated with forced migrants from the Crimea, who had to start their lives from scratch at the new place. But after all they understood that the most interesting things were taking place in Crimea.
“With every trip to the peninsula it was getting more interesting. We understood that we wouldn’t get any permit to shoot, so we were working unofficially. We felt that we were under surveillance and kept to the requirements of conspiracy. During the last two trips we had to bring the equipment and the materials to the peninsula and back separately from the shooting crew. However, we never got into direct contact with the bodies of powers.
“Only a narrow circle of people knew about the project. We asked Mustafa Dzhemilev for help. We understood that it was dangerous not only for us, but above all for the people we were shooting. In the film their names are not mentioned. Today we keep contact with these people – so far everything’s okay.
“The film is not politically biased. We are speaking about people, their everyday lives, smallest details which have changed in their lives over the past few years. The shooting took place for over a year. Over this time, a child was born in one family and an old man died. Nerves, depression, settling in new conditions – these people have gone through a lot of things. At the same time they in a sense became stronger. Everything is intertwined through the prism of stories of the four families.
“We’ve met people who can both cry and laugh. They are very open, which is why they are interesting. They don’t complain for complaining, but they understand that they faced a situation they cannot influence. Some try to reconsider it and put up, cope somehow. Others don’t know what to do. Some left to Ukraine’s mainland, others stayed. Everyone has the truth of their own.
“What does the older generation that went through the deportation think about this? They have their own special view of the current events. How do people left by their family live now. What does a man who cannot see his wife anymore after 25 years of marriage feel? Out of his principles he doesn’t want to leave his house, but his family doesn’t have an opportunity to come to see him, because return may have tragic consequences. Over a year this person goes through some stages, reconsiders his relationships with his family, and begins to see the situation absolutely differently.
“This film is rather a poem. We focused above all on human emotions. They are universal, understandable to any person, in spite of nationality, and even world outlook. Love, the attempts to give a better life to their children, sometimes by sacrificing – anyone can understand these things.
“I want people who stayed in Crimea not to be forgotten. This topic must be raised on a regular basis.”
Over the past three years we have been observing a splash of interest to documentary cinema in Ukraine. In your opinion, what is the meaning of documentary series for our society today?
“With its help we can tell the world about Ukraine. Ukrainians like every nation have their own temperament which is different from other peoples. We love and hate in our own way. And documentary cinema should tell about this. Documentary films are always truthful, and that’s their value. It is largely owing to the documentary films that Ukraine became interesting to the world – who are these people? Why did they go to Maidan? What are they fighting for in the east? When Ukraine is known and respected, it opens for us new ways for cooperation in various spheres.”
Documentary director Oleksii Radynskyi, one of the winners of the Docudays festival considers that two antagonistic directions of documentary cinema are developing in Ukraine simultaneously: conditionally nationally patriotic, which in his opinion offers simple conclusions for the audience, and critical documentary films. Do you agree with this opinion? Which of the streams is closer to you?
“I think we should look for the third one which would unite two abovementioned ones. Both approaches have truth of their own. Cinema helps to unite people. We can see that Americans promote their country with the help of films – an American flag is present nearly in every film. This is shaping the nation, and we shouldn’t be afraid of this either.
“Our film doesn’t touch upon the political or other reasons of the situation. We’re not looking for the guilty ones. Not because we are afraid, but because our purpose is different. Besides, that would repulse the audience who has answers to these questions. We’re exploring the man instead.
“In my opinion, documentary films shouldn’t reflect the events – this is the task of journalism. For our genre a more interesting thing is the inner conflict, what is going on inside of a person. My previous film told about the war, actually there is no war or shootings there. What is going on to a person when his brother is in a hospital as a prisoner, with his leg amputated? I was trying to tell about Ukrainians with the help of the inner world of a person.
“Such cinema will always have a prospect, because inside of every person there is something common for everyone. The environment, the external factors influence them, but they are inferior in a way. It is the task of documentary cinema to tell about such things.”
Does documentary cinema stand a chance for broad screening in Ukraine?
“I’m sure that documentary cinema must go together with fiction. As for me, namely in documentaries I find certain ‘energy of the truth,’ which I later will be able to use in a fiction movie.
“I think Ukrainians lack the culture of going to movies – it needs to be developed. The screenings provide financial support of moviemaking. Besides, when you understand that people are ready to pay to see your film, this is always a powerful feedback.
“If the audience gathers in one hall, it will lead to a certain new level of communication, exceeding virtual communication. This is very important. Cinema is emotion. When a person comes to the cinema, they can get such a share of emotions which they would have been waiting for a month to get in real life. Here you can cry, laugh, find, and reconsider something about yourself. This is the essence of sound and picture that can have a strong effect on a person.”
