In a project of Suspilne Culture – “No brotherhood – there wasn't one, isn't and will never be” people from across Ukraine's creative and cultural industries explain in their columns, how Russia has been trying to destroy Ukrainian identity for years (or even centuries).
All materials will be published in both Ukrainian and English. Russia's informational aggression has been a part of the daily discourse in Ukraine for a long time, especially after Maidan in 2014. Now we need to make this context available abroad to show that we've been fighting this war for way more than just a month.
Editor of DTF Magazine and film critic Yurii Samusenko explain the difference between Ukrainian and Russian film criticism and how the Ukrainian film industry changed after it broke free from Russian influence.
Ukrainian version is available here.
Translated from Ukrainian by Ivan Korniienko.
In her first essay from a collection "Against Interpretation", Susan Sontag defined art criticism as an attempt to explain why an art object happens to be the way it is. That is the basis of film criticism too. Critics make reviews, trying to pick apart and put together a complete impression of a movie, series or other forms. Of course, everyone's influenced by their upbringing, experience and nationality.
Film reviews are a relatively young genre in Ukraine. Save for VUFKUAll-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration, was a cinematographic state monopoly that united the entire film industry in Ukraine (1922–1930) – Editor`s Note reviews, there were periodicals (like "Krytyka" (Criticism) magazine, est. 1997) dedicated to publishing analytical essays, publicists and reviews. Naturally, a young genre needed somebody to lean on, in particular, on film critics from the USA and Russia. While USA's situation is perfectly clear with tens of professional movie periodicals, musing over Pauline Kael's and Roger Ebert's heritage, Russia didn't manage to raise its own professionals during the last almost hundred years.
For a long time, Russian film criticism was held together by two magazines, "Iskustvo Kino" (Movie Art) (est 1931) and "Seans" (Show) (est 1989). It's worth noting that both had issues dedicated to Ilya Khrzhanovsky's “DAU”, bearing not only positive reviews but also сalled on everybody to go and watch it.
But as of now, both of those magazines are donation-funded, printed only in small numbers and barely affect the box office, nevermind the viewer's opinion. They were quietly pushed backstage by personalities (who sometimes write for those magazines, too): Anton Dolin, Vasilii Stepanov, Stanislav Zelvenskyi, Zinaiida Pronchenko and others. These characters often went on air to discuss the successes of Russian movie industry even if the product was ideologically questionable.
Over the last 20 years, Russia has made dozens of militaristic movies, propagating the greatness of the Russian nation and the sacred victory in World War II. Recall Balabanov's "Brother" dilogy of movies, which as of now is the main symbol of Russia's war against Ukraine. Yurii Dud'sRussian journalist and YouTuber of Ukrainian descent – Editor`s Note question at the tail end of his shows every episode "What is the power?" is a direct quote from protagonist Danila Bagrov. The answer to that question is "Power lies in truth", a slogan that was often used in Russian elections and war propaganda. Film critics picked up the imperial narrative, analyzing the technical aspects of movies but conveniently brushing aside the ideological content. Hence the low scores for Ukrainian films at FIPRESSI, because they depicted the Russian-Ukrainian war in a light that made it rather hard to brush off.
But it was different before the war. Online media were built on the legacy of print. Plenty of Ukrainian film magazines existed in the 00s (“Kinodaydzhest” (Cinema digest), “Cinema” and “Total Film”). They featured mostly reviews of foreign films because back then we didn't have many local movies. The Revolution of Dignity took care of that, so more media sprang up: Moviegram, Vertigo and others.
Meanwhile, Russia's film critics were divided after DAU was screened in 2019. Part of the community didn't like the brutal way actress Nataliia Berezhna was treated and demanded that Berlinale explains and responds to real violence onscreen. A letter was signed by five critics, among them Tatiana Shorokhova (co-founder of kkbbd.com), but many (those who didn't sign) trusted the director that nobody was raped on set. And the problem of Russian people believing in fakes became clear again.
It was hard to imagine a dialog with Russian critics with a war going on since 2014, but yet it happened. Takflix had discussions on fem film criticism with another co-founder of KKBBD.com Mariia Kuvshynova. They pushed ideas that film criticism lacked objectivity, noting that feminist film criticism and cancel culture (which Putin addressed in his own way in a recent speech) lacked understanding in general. Other colleagues tried to distance themselves, imagining that they were doing the good work, representing the interests of imperialist thinking. In part by claiming Ukrainian directors like Dzyga Vertov, Kira Muratova and others to be Russian.
I almost forgot to mention another film critic, Evgenii Bazhenov (BadComedian), even though I consider him to be more of a reviewer in a youtube hate speech format. His contribution to the overall aggression should be also noted. His reviews show him not only being interested in bad Russian movies but also militarist ideas, reviewing World War II movies while focusing on the actions of Russian soldiers. His attention to wars past didn't contribute much to Russian pacifism. So now when you see youths supporting "special operation" on social media, it's not that hard to guess who viewed badcomedian's videos and knows about the "undefeatable nation".
Still, Bazhenov's reviews were the same sort of entertainment as Durniev'sOleksii Durniev – Ukrainian blogger, producer, actor – Editor`s Note vlogs. Since Russian films were banned in Ukraine, gone is the need to analyze and understand them. Russian movies were perceived as not being in the league for film criticism or analysis of the Russian box office.
Ukrainian film critics found a way to shine by reviewing Ukrainian films instead of Russian, to be proud not only of Ukrainian films at foreign festivals but promoting at our own, too. We broke free from the inferiority complex and realized that we are worth more than getting into the second and third rounds. Even though we still lack professionals, movie education and money, we still have more and more critics every year, as demonstrated by the growing numbers of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine.
We got a rare chance to call things Ukrainian long after they were such. After 2014 Moscow isn't the metropolis with Gazprom-funded influential media. When Russian critics left Russia, they lost their right to reflect on history taking place in Russia with all of its sanctions and support of Putin. They are no longer part of not only the Ukrainian context but also of their own country, disconnected from reality, neck-deep in "great Russian culture™".
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Suspilne Culture.
Further reading
- The Mysterious Soul, or How Dostoievskyi formed Russian society
- How Russia stole Ukrainian movies – explained by Oleksandr Teliuk
- Music is outside of politics? Tell that to the dead in Bucha
- A brief history of Russian propaganda
- Is "Russian world" heresy or neo-nazism? Explained by Kostiantyn Doroshenko
- Keep your “the” away from my country. And learn some history
