This year the multigenre French Spring in Ukraine festival will kick off on April 4, at 8:30 p.m., in Sophia Square in Kyiv and will begin with the play Crazy Bell-Ringers by the street theater Transe express. The audience will see an entire orchestra of percussionists who will be using a sizeable construction suspended from a telescopic tower crane as their main instrument. This show is on the borderline between theater and music: in addition to bell ringing and lighting, the personal skills of the artists will play a key part. At the end the entire construction together with the musicians will be lifted high above the square.
The scenic art will also be represented by the Barolosolo Circus Troupe with its musical water show “Wonder-Water Tales.” The experimental play Atavism will be shown in Donetsk and Kharkiv produced by three companies at the same time – the touring theater Zou, the Entrinte Theater, and the Escale troupe.
One of the festival’s biggest attractions will traditionally be pre-premiere showing of French movies in the movie theater “Kyiv.” A total of six films will be shown. The viewers should pay special attention to Impardonnables (Unforgivable) by noted director Andre Techine starring Carole Bouquet and Andre Dussollier, as well as to the criminal drama Polisse (director Maiwenn Le Besco, a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and two Cesar awards) and political thriller The Minister (director Pierre Scholler, Prix “Un Certain Regard” at the Cannes Film Festival and the Cesar Best Script Award). Families will like La cle des champs directed by Marie Perennou and Claude Nuridsany who have made a name for themselves through the documentaries Microcosmos and Genesis.
Enthusiasts of night movie marathons will be treated to the Long Nights of Shorts – four different sets of short films awarded or presented at the most prestigious international film forums.
The visual part of the French Spring is the collective exhibit “Animated images” which will be held on April 11-23 in the Ya-Gallery in Kyiv. The exposition, which will focus on the human body, will include works by French and Ukrainian artists.
Literature will be represented in a special way: soccer will be the topic of as many as two meetings. Political writer and expert Pascale Boniface will speak about his new book Soccer and Globalization (April 9, Ye Bookstore), while writer and sports journalist Pierre-Louis Basse will be of interest prior to Euro-2012 as a researcher of the history of soccer and author of the book about the “Death Match” of 1942.
The musical part will include both classics and modern songs. The Week of High Classics will be organized for the second time by Roman Kofman: laureates of numerous competitions and festivals will participate. As far as light music is concerned, the French Spring will end on April 27 when Paris Combo will give its concert on Kyiv’s Spivoche pole (Singing Field) at 19:30. This quintet mixed jazz, swing, Latin American and Gypsy melodies. Critics have voiced fairly favorable reviews of the band and the vocal technique of its singer Belle du Berry.
In addition to Kyiv, festival events will be held in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv.
