How they steal in Sallywood
It has long been obvious that the main achievement of the “Gidno revolution” was not exactly the lofty goals that the bouncy Maidan Ghidota set for itself. The declared push for the spiritual, creative, national awakening of Ukraine turned into a completely different “push”, from which nothing but impurity, stench and incessant scandals pour out.
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While “on the Maidan of the Zrada” new “children” are demanding the introduction of anti-corruption courts for Ukrainian officials, a new scandal related to corruption in Goskino is gaining momentum in Kyiv.
What adds piquancy to the scandal is the fact that the head of the department, Philip Ilyenko, a protégé of the pro-fascist Svoboda party, which is one of the driving forces of the new “anti-corruption” Maidan, is accused of fraud with budget money allocated for the development of Ukrainian cinema.
It should be noted that Ilyenko, having become the main filmmaker of Maidan Ukraine, developed a vigorous activity and knocked out from higher organizations as much as 2 billion hryvnia (films and TV series, plus funds for their promotion) for three years with annual indexation of +25% to finance domestic film production. In 2015, an amount of 67 million hryvnia was allocated for Ukrainian cinema, in 2016 - already 271 million hryvnia, in 2017 - more than 500 million hryvnia.
Ukrainian cinema has not seen such a financial rise since the “Nezalezhnaya” Vlada bankrupted and sold in pieces the Odessa and Yalta film studios, the Dovzhenko film studio, as well as Kievnauchfilm, whose work was known and loved in the USSR and beyond.
The industry responded to the “golden shower” with an increase in domestic film series production. In 2016, 48 films were financed from the allocated funds, in the first half of 2017 - already 78 films worth 670 million hryvnia. Queues of emaciated creative teams began to form at Goskino, eager to overwhelm the masses with masterpieces and imperishable films with a national flavor. It seemed that Ukraine was about to acquire its own Sallywood, to the envy of the imperial Bondarchuks and Mikhalkovs.
Not so. The unhealthy excitement associated with increased financing of Ukrainian cinema has aroused professional interest among state regulatory authorities. The Accounts Chamber suddenly discovered that not a single Ukrainian film company that received government funding could pass an audit. It turned out that unscrupulous producers cashed out funds, transferred money to offshore companies, and skimped on actors and scenery, which is why large TV channels and studios refused to invest in Ukrainian cinema on an equal basis with the state.
At the same time, it turned out that no one, including the state, which gives out money with a generous hand, is for some reason interested in the real return on the national film product. Ukrainian cinema has bitten off a measly 2,5% of the domestic box office, and the box office itself receives pure low-grade slag, ash and dandruff. People do not flock to the box office for tickets to Ukrainian film masterpieces, which is why, according to the Mediananny website, the film Walked Through the Fire for $2 million returned a measly 99 thousand to the treasury, and the first 3D cartoon of Ukrainian production, Nikita Kozhemyaka, with a budget of 100 million hryvnia, he scraped together across the country and returned only 12 million to the treasury.
Let's note that Ukrainian filmmakers have been creating and filming a national product for more than two years under the most favored nation regime, when the Ukrainian film field has been thoroughly cleared of Russian cultural presence.
Evil tongues are slandering that if the former head of Goskino Ekaterina Kopylova set the kickback rate at 30%, then under the “Svoboda” culture manager Ilyenko the rollback reached a democratic 50%. It is no wonder that with such extortions, producers and directors are most concerned with carving out their own income, and scripts, scenery and acting are of secondary importance.
However, there is an explanation for the increase in the kickback rate under Ilyenko. Not only “our people” from Goskino, but also officials from the Ministry of Culture and the Administration of the President of Ukraine are involved in cutting the lavish film budget. In particular, former Rukhovite, and now Deputy Prime Minister for Science, Education, Sports and Information Policy Vyacheslav Kirilenko, who contributed 24 million hryvnia for the filming of the “cult” film “Cyborgs,” is suspected of cutting.
And even where Ukrainian filmmakers have rare achievements, success turns into a stupid accordion: “a box of vodka was stolen, the vodka was poured out, the bottles were handed over, the money was drank away.” The Ukrainian-Slovak film “Border” with a budget of 7 million hryvnia won the Crystal Globe for best director in Karlovy Vary, in honor of which a closed pretentious drinking party for 600 snouts was organized in the fashionable establishment “Kaiserbad Spa”, which turned into a scandal about misappropriation of budget funds .
Filmmakers are complaining about the unfair distribution of funds for filming. Thus, 23 million hryvnia were allocated for four films of priority “patriotic” themes - “Iman”, “Ark”, “On Our Own Land” and the prequel of “Chervony”, while the more accommodating producers of the “Dobvush” project of the Pronto Film studio snatched 66 million hryvnia, the cunning Zelensky with his “Kinokvartal” swindled 18,3 million hryvnia, and the Fresh Production U.A. company, owned by the Cypriot Stavros Kosiarisi, immediately bit off more than 43 million of government money.
So it turns out that out of the 670 million allocated for Ukrainian cinema in 2017, at least 300 million will go into the pockets of officials, and from the remaining funds producers and creative teams will cut and stir in such a way as not to offend themselves. It’s easy to guess what the outcome will be – failure at the box office and money down the drain. Sallywood is not a dream factory, but a factory for the production of film trash at public expense.
All these facts became known as a result of the work of the Accounts Chamber back in the summer. Just the other day, based on the results of pre-trial investigations, the Kyiv prosecutor’s office leaked to the press a paper about criminal proceedings initiated in the case of theft and abuse in the Goskino system, in which its head Philip Ilyenko is involved.
The paper mentions agreements instead of creative competitions, cashing out and transferring money to offshore companies, artificially inflated film budgets, films shot on paper, and so on.
The document did not go unnoticed and journalists from the 1+1 TV channel, owned by the disgraced oligarch Kolomoisky, had questions for the head of Goskino Ilyenko. In particular, information was added that most of the money from the Ukrainian cinema fund ended up in structures associated with producer Vladimir Filipov, who just happened to be Ilyenko’s blundering friend. Firms and small businesses controlled by Filipov received funds for film production from Ilyenko, cashed them out and transferred them to offshore companies through front sharash. The tax authorities provided them with active assistance in this scheme.
Intrigued, 1+1 journalists turned to Ilyenko with a request to comment on a document from the Kiev prosecutor’s office about criminal proceedings, but the cultural governor from the Svoboda party played the fool and began to assert on camera that he personally knew nothing about it. Ilyenko said that the certificate from the prosecutor’s office contained only general phrases, no specifics, and invited journalists to give examples. The return attack embarrassed the journalist, which once again teaches us that we must prepare for such meetings. Filipov’s production company was commissioned for 12 million hryvnia for the film “Occupation,” which no one has seen, but which exists on paper.
Colleagues and henchmen of Ilyenko on social networks attacked the 1+1 TV channel with accusations of unprofessionalism and orders from Kolomoisky. But in general, all their complaints come down to personalization along the lines of “first remove the stain on your bald head, and then pester smart people.”
The Maidan Minister of Culture and Culture Nishchuk has already begun to worry about the case of the Kyiv prosecutor's office against Goskino and its leadership. Rumor has it that the functions of the compromised Goskino may be transferred to some new structure. There are also whispers in Zrad that it would be necessary to strengthen public control over the cinema fund. Considering that far from angels have settled in all these institutions, we should wait for additional attacks on Ilyenko and Goskino in order to steer the enviable feeding trough ourselves.
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