Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov talks swapping red carpet for fighting on the frontline (exclusive)
The filmmaker who is serving as an army reservist sends fresh dispatches from the frontline
Just six weeks ago Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov was walking the red carpet at Kyiv’s landmark Cinema House venue for the national premiere of his new film Rhino, ahead of its general release across the country on February 17.
The raft of high-profile guests included former Ukrainian presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko, current foreign minister Dimitry Kuleba, rock star Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and actress Kateryna Molchanova.
The drama, about a young man who works his way up the ranks of the organised crime world in 1990s Ukraine,...
Just six weeks ago Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov was walking the red carpet at Kyiv’s landmark Cinema House venue for the national premiere of his new film Rhino, ahead of its general release across the country on February 17.
The raft of high-profile guests included former Ukrainian presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko, current foreign minister Dimitry Kuleba, rock star Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and actress Kateryna Molchanova.
The drama, about a young man who works his way up the ranks of the organised crime world in 1990s Ukraine,...
- 3/30/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Roman Abramovich, a West-leaning Russian oligarch best known for owning the English football club Chelsea, and peace negotiators from Ukraine were likely poisoned during a meeting in Kyiv at the beginning of March, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The negotiators, who had met with Russian counterparts in hopes of charting a path away from war, later experienced debilitating symptoms including “red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands,” the report says. (Abramovich was briefly blinded, though his eyesight has since returned,...
The negotiators, who had met with Russian counterparts in hopes of charting a path away from war, later experienced debilitating symptoms including “red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands,” the report says. (Abramovich was briefly blinded, though his eyesight has since returned,...
- 3/28/2022
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
★★★★☆ Maidan Nezalezhnosti is a square in the centre of Kiev in Ukraine. It gained its name - literally translated as Independence Square - in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's subsequent declaration of independence. It has been a focal point for protest and dissent, forming the fire point for the Orange Revolution which saw the election of Viktor Yushchenko in 2004. The square was in fact such a thorn in the oligarchy's side that at one point extensive renovations were planned in order to cordon off the public space and so stifle public protest. In late 2013, the Euromaidan protest began, initially demanding a closer integration with Europe and a shift away from Russia.
- 4/13/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
British movie mogul Lord Puttnam Of Queensgate is convinced of the power of film after learning The Killing Fields helped thwart a civil war in the Ukraine.
Shortly after the powerful 1984 movie, about the harsh realities of the Cambodian War, won big at the Oscars, producer Puttnam was asked to screen the film in the Ukraine, as part of a British cultural week in Kiev.
Delivering the keynote address at the Edinburgh Film Festival in Scotland on Sunday, Puttnam explained how impactful that screening was.
He said, "The British Film Council felt it was appropriate to screen the movie there (Kiev) and it didn’t take long to realise that I'd been rather badly briefed about the Ukraine - I had no understanding at all of the tensions that existed: political, religious, economic and cultural.
"We ran the film on a Saturday morning, in a huge cavernous cinema, to an audience of mostly young people - about 2,000 of them. After the screening, in an otherwise terrific question and answer session, no one mentioned Cambodia. All of the talk was of the Ukraine and its problems, and whether any such series of events (chronicled in the film) could possibly happen to them."
Unbeknown to Puttnam, the film was subsequently pirated and became a must-see for Ukranians. And the Brit learned of the full impact of the movie upon meeting the then-new Ukranian President Viktor Yushchenko.
The moviemaker explained, "I heard one of the interpreters mention that I was the producer of The Killing Fields, at which point he grabbed me and excitedly explained that shortly after my visit the film had begun to circulate among their schools and colleges.
"Apparently lots and lots of VHS copies of The Killing Fields were shown in schools all over the Ukraine. In fact as far as I could make out, every kid in the Ukraine has at some point seen the movie. He asked me if I’d ever noticed that during the Orange Revolution (post-election protests of 2004 and 2005) there was never any discussion, at any point at all, about the possibility of a civil war breaking out.
"He said, 'Because of your film we understood all too well what civil war did to a nation. We saw what happened in Cambodia, and determined that it was not going to happen in Ukraine.'"...
Shortly after the powerful 1984 movie, about the harsh realities of the Cambodian War, won big at the Oscars, producer Puttnam was asked to screen the film in the Ukraine, as part of a British cultural week in Kiev.
Delivering the keynote address at the Edinburgh Film Festival in Scotland on Sunday, Puttnam explained how impactful that screening was.
He said, "The British Film Council felt it was appropriate to screen the movie there (Kiev) and it didn’t take long to realise that I'd been rather badly briefed about the Ukraine - I had no understanding at all of the tensions that existed: political, religious, economic and cultural.
"We ran the film on a Saturday morning, in a huge cavernous cinema, to an audience of mostly young people - about 2,000 of them. After the screening, in an otherwise terrific question and answer session, no one mentioned Cambodia. All of the talk was of the Ukraine and its problems, and whether any such series of events (chronicled in the film) could possibly happen to them."
Unbeknown to Puttnam, the film was subsequently pirated and became a must-see for Ukranians. And the Brit learned of the full impact of the movie upon meeting the then-new Ukranian President Viktor Yushchenko.
The moviemaker explained, "I heard one of the interpreters mention that I was the producer of The Killing Fields, at which point he grabbed me and excitedly explained that shortly after my visit the film had begun to circulate among their schools and colleges.
"Apparently lots and lots of VHS copies of The Killing Fields were shown in schools all over the Ukraine. In fact as far as I could make out, every kid in the Ukraine has at some point seen the movie. He asked me if I’d ever noticed that during the Orange Revolution (post-election protests of 2004 and 2005) there was never any discussion, at any point at all, about the possibility of a civil war breaking out.
"He said, 'Because of your film we understood all too well what civil war did to a nation. We saw what happened in Cambodia, and determined that it was not going to happen in Ukraine.'"...
- 6/23/2009
- WENN
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.