Residents of Lvov cried at the premiere of “The Battle of Sevastopol”
Sevastopol, April 02 (PolitNavigator, Alexander Kononov) – The film “The Battle for Sevastopol,” which is being released simultaneously in Russia and Ukraine, is an example of how to cooperate in difficult political circumstances. Not everything was done as desired, but what was possible was done.
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Participants in the filming process spoke about this at the press screening of the film “Battle for Sevastopol”. According to the director of the film, Sergei Mokrinsky, “political events influenced us, but they did not affect the film.”
“We have a common cause, this cause united us, and therefore there were no harsh statements. And then, maybe they were, but they won’t tell me about it, because I’m my own person there. I am a Ukrainian from the Zhytomyr region. I lived half my life in Ukraine, half my life in Russia. I have a Russian passport, so it’s difficult for me - I root for both. I asked to work during working hours and not waste it. After work, please, at least gnaw at each other’s throats, and at work we do a common cause. But no one bit anyone, and, thank God,” he recalls about the details of the filming.
At the same time, the general producer of the film, Natalya Mokrinskaya, admitted that everything was far from being as simple as the director describes.
“It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy, though. Some members of the Russian group – their parents did not let them go, they were afraid to let them go to Ukraine. This is true. The same thing - people refused to work in Ukraine. They said they wouldn't work because it was a Russian film. There were those who worked, but they were few. This is one or two people,” said the producer.
Filming, according to Sergei Mokrinsky, began in 2013 in Sevastopol, when the city was still part of the Ukrainian state, but then, due to the unfolding events, they had to continue in Odessa.
“It was impossible to film here, so Odessa played the role of Sevastopol. We have shots, planes, explosions. If we had started blowing up something during the Russian Spring, we would have been misunderstood. A lot had to be twisted somehow. It's a pity. It was also impossible to stop. If we stopped, it would probably be impossible to unwind it all again.”
At the same time, at the level of approvals before the start of the filming process, we also had to deal with some features of the political system in Ukraine, which, the director admits, he did not fully understand even then.
“There was pitching in Ukraine. We defended a movie with the Ukrainian producer Yegor Olesov and, although I am Ukrainian by nationality, at that time I did not understand the realities of modern Ukraine, and an incomprehensible, strange question was asked for me: “Are you going to make a film about the Great Patriotic War or the Second World War?” I tensed up, I didn’t know what to answer, and then I remembered this story: I was named after my uncle Sergei, and my uncle died in May 45. And then I asked this man, “tell me, my uncle died in which war - World War II or the Great Patriotic War?”
The attitude, according to him, was extremely ambiguous.
“They treated us differently. Some people broke ties with me, others, on the contrary, strengthened family ties. Just like you. There was nothing unusual there. The son shooed his father away from the table, I was extremely embarrassed. Some were patient, so the most reasonable thing was to say that we work and talk about politics autonomously, somewhere at home in the kitchen,” he recalls.
His film, Mokrinsky assures, is “about things that are higher than some momentary concepts: about love, about death, about devotion and duty.”
“We showed an example of how we can cooperate, if we have a job, we have a common story, and there is one, if there is a heroine that unites us, then we can work. Here we are – a living example of this cooperation,” explained the director.
At the same time, he is sure that it is a great success that the film is being released unchanged in both Russian and Ukrainian distribution, and actress Polina Pakhomova, who played one of the main roles, spoke about how the film was welcomed at the presentation the day before yesterday in Lvov. She recently returned from there.
“It was wonderful in Lviv. A lot of people came. Everyone was very open, there were no provocations, no questions. Everyone there knows that it is being published in Russia. In general, we were greeted very openly. After the film, people cried, came up and thanked me,” she said.
However, for Ukrainian viewers the film was released under a different title - “Unbroken”, which, by the way, is much more consistent with the plot of the film, where there is essentially no “battle for Sevastopol” as such, with the exception of episodic scenes. In general, this is a film about the fate of a young Soviet girl, sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who killed 309 fascists, and everything else is built around this. At the same time, in Pavlichenko’s book of memoirs, Sevastopol, the battle for Sevastopol really occupies a central place.
“For these two hours, in this difficult time, let the peoples be united, let something unite them. At least two hours and three minutes, as long as the film lasts,” says the film’s director.
“Today is a very difficult and scary day for me, for the first time I started to worry. Sevastopol, you understand. It’s hard to show the film “Battle for Sevastopol” in Sevastopol. Today there will be a main test, today it will be just I don’t know what. First impressions are good. People came out and cried. I’m waiting for a reaction and I’m worried,” added Sergei Mokrinsky.
Based on the film, a television version will subsequently be released,” he admitted.
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