It was crowded at the Cinema House in Kyiv on October 7. It is hard to remember a moment when that many Kyivites and visitors were interested in a documentary display. And moreover, if this documentary poses not just as an element of capturing events, but is a landmark of time, and most importantly, it makes the audience think about what they have seen, and draw conclusions. Students, researchers, directors, writers, and tens of film lovers came to the show of documentaries by The Day’s contributor Valentyn TORBA. Documentaries about... the Ukrainian Luhansk. These films were shot long before the current events, but just like a nerve impulse of our memory, they demonstrate why Luhansk is not Ukrainian today. Let us remind that Torba stayed in Luhansk until the very last moment. He left the city only in September. During his stay there, he wrote articles for The Day. His articles are full of the dismal facts of the Ukrainian government’s errors and failures, with pain, suffering, and of course, faith in the liberation of the city. It can be said that in his documentaries he managed to foresee events he witnessed in Luhansk and skillfully described in articles for The Day. They are full of poetry, nature, and ruin at the same time.
“I thank The Day, the newspaper which sheltered me, and most importantly, gave an opportunity to write, analyze, inform the thoughts. Sitting in that isolation, in that hell (not because everything is exploding there, but because you do not know whether you will get out of there and how it will all end), you assess every footstep inside the building as danger, thinking now they came for you. Every day these emotions accumulated, like those of a pregnant woman. I had to give birth to them. The Day helped me in this by giving an opportunity to publish these thoughts,” the author said before the show. “Does Kyiv differ much from the Luhansk we managed to show? Did the system change? Is it different here from what it had been in Luhansk? Have we got into a deeper trap than we thought?”
The film Lahidna svativska speka (Mild Heat in Svatove) was demonstrated first. It is a poetic short movie about the author’s small hometown in the north of Luhansk oblast, where refugees from the anti-terrorist operation zone are living today.
“I hold Valentyn up as an example to my students,” said operator Yurii HARMASH during the film presentation. “I showed the film to them and asked why after majoring in cinematography at the university for four years they have not shot such a beautiful film. A lot were ashamed. I envy him myself, because I have not yet shot such a wonderful film, which is a sort of confession of love for your native land, about my beloved Poltava oblast. Valentyn impressed me, because without having any education in this field, he took a camera, learned how to use it himself, how to do the editing, and gave us extremely interesting works.”
After the lyrical film the audience was offered the first series of the project Luhansk. Devianosti (Luhansk. The Nineties) called Ruina (The Ruin). To some extent, the film can be called a diagnosis of the time. It is full of looted factories, destroyed industrial centers, people’s apathy. The film is based on interviews with Luhansk residents of various professions. They tell about where they were and what they were doing in the 1990s; what this period was for the life of the city and the country; who came to power, in what way, what moral, professional, or criminal skills these people possessed. At the beginning of the film the author noted that it is not an investigation, a demonstration of sensational facts and claim on establishing the truth are not its goals. The film is just a mosaic of time. Everyone draws conclusions themselves. The film asks the questions the Ukrainian society will have to find an answer to sooner or later.
And the short movie Post Maidan was the last to be displayed. Author showed what was left of Maidan. An accidental shot of a Polish journalist became an important detail; he told his audience against the background of the ruined Maidan that the SBU and administration buildings were captured in Luhansk. And that the increasing presence of the “Russian factor” can be felt in the city.
The films themselves, just as the creative discussion and exchange of thoughts after the show had an air of a frank, intimate conversation.
“Kyiv is a city which has become a shelter for many, just like it did in the ancient times of Batu Khan. And preserving this city is our duty. In order to do this, we must reinforce it on the inside, in our spirit, views, common denominators. While watching my film about Luhansk of the nineties, I noticed with sadness that all these intelligent, active, progressive people left their homeland in a year. Who will remain there, in the east? Who will represent that poetic and destroyed abandoned region?” said Torba in his comment to The Day. “The last part of the event, the discussion, was very important for me as an author. People became more active and started not only asking questions, but expressing their views. Kyiv residents addressed questions to people from Luhansk, and tried to understand. A lot of questions hang in the air, unfortunately, they are spoken in kitchens, not in the halls, they are conserved, because no answers are found. And this means that new stereotypes are formed, which someone will surely use as bait. That is why they must be spoken. We must open to each other, show our grief, trouble, hope, and love. The love for the land, for the region, for each other. Considering that blood was shed in Luhansk oblast a year after my films were shot, these words are not that pompous. As a carrier of memories and pain from that tragedy, as a witness of the inhumane crime against Ukrainians, I have a full right to say: if not for the respect and attempt at understanding each other, it would have been extremely hard to survive. It happened that Kyivites noticed the films, operator Yurii Harmash and director of the Association of Cinematographers Serhii Trymbach in the first place; Kyivites gave me an opportunity to express my thoughts – I mean The Day newspaper; Kyivites helped me to settle down here. Kyivites who come from Poltava, Lutsk, Vinnytsia, Sukhodilsk, Odesa. This is the denominator, the vector which was completely eliminated by hatred and aggression in Donbas. The spilt blood is yet to nurture horrible sprouts. Someone was counting on that. And we must be prepared.”
“VALENTYN SHOWS THAT THE SYSTEM REVIVES AGAIN EVEN AFTER THE MAIDAN”
Serhii TRYMBACH, director of the National Association of Cinematographers of Ukraine:
“I congratulate Valentyn Torba with this debut. If we view the films from the technical point of view, they are somewhat amateurish, of course. But the civic and social way of thinking has been presented on a professional level. Valentyn is a professional journalist, an expert social thinker. It can be seen in his articles, in The Day in particular. The author conveyed his specific journalist vision through cinematography. And this is the main value of these works. Moreover, the fault of our society is, in my opinion, that neither on the break of the 1980s-1990s, nor later, did we give thought to what was happening to the country. And therefore if there was any transformation of society, it was the kind that harmed our lives. This is why it is extremely important to finally start thinking now. And by the way, Valentyn showed that the system revives even after the Maidan. To be more precise, it does not revive, because it never died. It just hid for some time, and now these do-gooders appear again and convince us they will lead us to a brighter future... It is very important to stop and think now about what is happening in the country. Valentyn’s films, using his native Luhansk oblast as an example, provide good food for thought.”
P.S. Those who could not attend the presentation of the films can view them on Torba’s Youtube channel (films can be found by their titles).
