The festivals invariable director general Andrii Khalpakhchi told The Day about the festival agenda, its problems, and the festival movement in today’s reality.
Out of the 42 years of the festival’s existence, you have announced the next festival’s opening for more than 20 years.
“For 23 years, actually.”
And it was during these years that the festival acquired international status. It is on all international calendars and has a reputation with the film community. Over this time, a lot has changed in the political system and the film industry: it has gone through the hardest times, and the festival has survived. What is it like today, with the experience of 23 years behind it?
“There is a certain stereotype on the post-Soviet space: any festival should be ‘no worse than Cannes.’ But it is impossible to come anywhere close the Cannes Festival, unless the country starts making 300 full-length films annually, like France does. They have an industry, a huge market, where films are purchased directly. Even in Russia the situation is a bit better today: it is common knowledge that Russian distributors see us as their colony. Here is a fresh example: we wanted to show the French film Renoir. It’s a wonderful film about the last years of Renoir’s life, about his son, who became a great film director later, Jean Renoir. After seen this film, one French lady told me, ‘I’m proud to be French.’
“This picture was purchased by Russia, but Russian distributors are not planning to show it in Ukraine, citing our being ‘not mature enough’ for such films. When we asked the Russian company for this film, they said the price was 5,000 dollars. This is a totally unrealistic price. So we are still limited in terms of the repertory: we are still showing only either the likes of Russian New Year Trees or American Matrix. There is also another component, and it is production. And this is where we have made a big step forward: in terms of legislation, in terms of financing, and finally, in terms of new names. This exactly is our festival’s niche, it is oriented towards the young film. The history of Molodist knows a lot of domestic and international directors, who have risen to prominence and who made their debut at our festival. But what has changed over this time?
“We used to hear a lot of reproaches for accepting too few Ukrainian movies for the contest. However, if a film was totally out of line with the international program, it would have been a disservice to a budding director. Today the situation has changed. The Ukrainian constituent at Molodist has considerably grown. Now we have a national short film contest, which is extremely important. Also, now we have a program of Ukrainian premieres. They differ in their artistic qualities, but they are quite worth being shown at the festival.
“Also, a domestic classics program has appeared. It is crucial to show at a youth festival that a lot has existed before. This year we will celebrate Viktor Ivchenko’s anniversary. He had a few wonderful pictures. For instance, The Viper was a great success, although it was denounced by the critics for the unbiased depicting of the New Economic Policy as a period when people were losing hope. Also, there was a wonderful film which was largely unnoticed in its time, Hoar Frost. The actress Larysa Kadochnykova turned 75, but for some reason the management of Lesia Ukrainka Theater did not take the trouble to celebrate this anniversary, and the Ministry of Culture, too, ignored it. I think we will make up for this oversight.”
Which films will be included in Bohdan Stupka’s retrospective show?
“Stupka was a great actor, and for four years he presided over Molodist. The retrospective will include Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish films. Starting with his first major part in White Bird with a Black Mark to his last work in Ukrainian film, Wild Angel to the Russian film Home, spectators will have an opportunity to appraise his work and get an idea of the great school of acting that we had, and still have.”
What part does the government play in supporting Molodist today?
“Via the Stage Agency for Cinematography, the state allocates 1.5 million hryvnias for the festival, which makes up at least 20 percent of its budget, so it is quite a substantial sum. There is a ruling by the Kyiv City Council (unfortunately, not yet approved) about the allocation of the same sum, 1.5 million hryvnias. We really hope that the local authorities will not let the festival down. Even our sponsors make inquiries about the degree of government’s involvement. A festival cannot be registered at the FIAPF (the International Federation of Film Producers Associations) if it is privately run and has no government support. This is very important. On the other hand, you still have to fight a lot of red tape in order to get this money. The rest of our budget is made up by sponsors and partners.”
I know that the festival team is rather small, whereas the festival itself is quite big, with lots of guests, participants, and journalists. Most of them need transportation, accommodation, and so on, let alone cinemas to see films. Today volunteering is quite popular worldwide. We both have seen volunteers at our neighbors’ festivals, in Khanty-Mansiysk or Vologda, where these absolutely awesome guys and girls have worked very professionally, with pleasure and enthusiasm, for several years. Are there any volunteers involved with Molodist?
“Today even the young need to earn money. Nevertheless, we have quite a large volunteer team, and some of them are even on staff of the festivals – at least, for this month actually, when the festival is held. They have become quite professional. We have to promote this practice, indeed. However, there certainly are some difficulties even with the people who have been working with us for months. People get more mature, they find other jobs, permanent employment.”
Cannot you afford hiring this team all year round?
“No, of course not. A part remains. Three or four people work all year round, or at least six or nine months, as the case may be. It is complicated, because the festival does not earn much, unfortunately. The international practice shows that tickets earn 10 percent of the proceeds. For us, this share is smaller, of course. We try to keep the tickets as cheap as possible. Another problem is that our audience is shrinking, unfortunately. The public’s taste is deteriorating, it is getting used to mass production. It is quite a challenge, offering oysters to someone who has been eating burgers all their life. So this is the festival’s another mission: the upbringing and education of the audience.
“We will not be able to do it this year, but we are planning to initiate a program of bringing back the Ukrainian viewers to the cinemas, luring them with good films. The Polish example is very inspiring here. They have movie clubs, prime time TV programs about the movies, they publish books and magazines, both popular and specialized. As a result, according to Oleksandr Rodniansky, Andrei Zvyagintsev’s film Elena is a bigger box office success in Poland than in Russia. ‘This shows what kind of spectator we have lost,’ concludes Rodniansky. Unfortunately, the same can be said about Ukraine.”
Could you name some features (names, discussions, etc.), which we could later present to our readers?
“I hope we will have some presents for them. I would like to concentrate on our main area, the new names. Believe me, our spectators are in for some very interesting discoveries.”
