"Mamay" a hit in Hollywood
Feb. 10th, 2004 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maryxmasFrom: Stephen Bandera <sbandera@fourfreedoms.net>
Despite the attention and interest in Ukrainian film, Sanin remains very concerned with the general situation in the Ukrainian film industry. Workers of the Dovzhenko Film Studios were recently chased out and the facilities occupied by representatives of a Russian television channel. Since Mamay was completed in January 2003, not one feature length film has been produced in Ukraine. Sanin says that he and other young filmmakers are concerned with plans to scale back Dovzhenko Film Studios and begin developing the studio's valuable location as real estate.
"The film theater chains [here] are all owned by Russian sponsors and will only screen Russian films. For a Ukraine film to even play in a cinema we must rent the theater ourselves. It's a controlling structure that is effectively freezing out Ukrainian pictures," Sanin told bluntreviews.com.
anuary 31, 2004
Natsional'na Trybuna
New York
National Tribune - The first Ukrainian film being considered for a Best Foreign Oscar nomination was viewed by the Hollywood Academy on January 9. Mamay qualified for the group of fifty seven foreign films considered for this year's nomination. On January 27 five of those films will be nominated by the Academy's foreign film committee.
"It is a picture Ukraine can be proud of," commented Mike Kohut, who has been nominated for sixteen Academy awards and president of Sony Post Production. In the opinion of this honored member of the Academy the picture is "brilliant, with spectacular cinematography, all done very beautifully done and very well. "
Donald Trachtenberg, a veteran member of the Academy's Best Foreign Picture Nominating Committee, said Mamay is "absolutely gorgeous. I loved the synthesis and use of visuals and sound. The images and music tell such a strong story that dialogue becomes secondary." "I look forward to seeing more Ukrainian pictures in the future and will definitely go see the picture Ukraine submits next year," Trachteneberg said.
Mamay is the name of the Kozak archetype depicted in Ukrainian folk art as a warrior-monk enjoying a moment of zen-like serenity. The Mamay of art is typically seated cross legged under a tree and is surrounded by various possessions and attributes, including pistol, spear, sword, horse, wine cup, pipe, sometimes playing the Kozak bard stringed instrument, the kobza. In Tartar, Mongol and Buryat languages, the word Mamay (pronounced "mam-eye") is used to frighten children as a "little devil" or "bad spirit."
Critics agree that one of the film's strongest features is the music composed by Alla Zahajkevych. "She took the lullabies and folk melodies from the Ukrainian and Tatar cultures," Sanin said in a phone interview. The fusion of visuals and music has been described as "hypnotic" and "psychedelic" in the press.
Leslie Felperin reviewed Mamay for Variety magazine in December 2003. She wrote that the film "feels more like a work of folkloric painting brought to life than a traditional movie. Nevertheless, despite the tragic ending, one might read the picture as an allegory pleading for cross-cultural tolerance, a very contemporary theme given current strife in the nearby Caucasus region.
The film was screened twice during the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 15 and 16. One of the showings was reviewed by critic Emily Blunt who spoke to the director Oles Sanin. He told her "'Audiences in Ukraine are sick of action films and violence... Mamay is a more an audio visual art form, it's like a ballet of film,' It sure is. The film is simply stunning. He and his crew have created a masterpiece - and on something like a $200,000 budget."
During his stay in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, Sanin was accompanied by Peter Borisow president of the Hollywood Trident Foundation. "Several Academy members made exceptionally favorable comments ranging from 'brilliant' to 'a young Ukrainian Fellini,'" Borisow said, "the fact that the Academy screened the movie at prime time on a Friday night is very prestigious." Borisow arranged last-minute translation and subtitling before the Academy screening for four hundred viewers. "In Palm Springs, Mamay was very well received: the screenings were well attended and people stayed behind to discuss the movie with Oles."
Mamay is Oles Sanin's first full length feature film. The thirty year old Ukrainian wrote, directed and acted in the film. Three stories are cleverly interwoven to create the Byzantine mosaic that is "Mamay." Two of the stories are taken from Ukrainian and Tartar oral histories, at a time when Byzantine Christianity encountered Asian Islam on the steppes of Ukraine. Both legends happen to be about three men: three Tatar and three Ukrainian brothers. In the film, their paths cross as they live out their respective legendary dramas preserved in the lore of Ukrainian and Tatar peoples.
The third story written by director and screenwriter Oles Sanin was developed on set in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. The crew was preparing to film a battle scene in Crimea when word of the attacks on the United States came to Ukraine. The consensus was to not proceed with filming the violence of battle. Instead, a cross-cultural love story was introduced: Kozak Mamay is saved and falls in love with the Tartar woman Omay. "Now it is a story where love and honor win in the end," Sanin explained. "I've been asked to bring back more films from Ukraine, it's like we've just been discovered in Hollywood," Sanin said.
Despite the attention and interest in Ukrainian film, Sanin remains very concerned with the general situation in the Ukrainian film industry. Workers of the Dovzhenko Film Studios were recently chased out and the facilities occupied by representatives of a Russian television channel. Since Mamay was completed in January 2003, not one feature length film has been produced in Ukraine. Sanin says that he and other young filmmakers are concerned with plans to scale back Dovzhenko Film Studios and begin developing the studio's valuable location as real estate.
"The film theater chains [here] are all owned by Russian sponsors and will only screen Russian films. For a Ukraine film to even play in a cinema we must rent the theater ourselves. It's a controlling structure that is effectively freezing out Ukrainian pictures," Sanin told bluntreviews.com. The makers and fans of Mamay consider the film's chances of winning an Oscar realistically: it is difficult to compete with multi-million and multinational film productions, as many hundreds of thousand of dollars to promote dome other foreign films for the Oscars. Nevertheless, the film has made a resonance in Hollywood: it was granted a very prestigious screening time by the Academy and has sparked interest to see more Ukrainian cinema.
Note: Mamay was not on the short list of five Academy Award nominations announced on January 27, 2004.
This article originally appeared in print in the January 31 English-language supplement of Natsionalna Trybuna, published in New York.
Despite the attention and interest in Ukrainian film, Sanin remains very concerned with the general situation in the Ukrainian film industry. Workers of the Dovzhenko Film Studios were recently chased out and the facilities occupied by representatives of a Russian television channel. Since Mamay was completed in January 2003, not one feature length film has been produced in Ukraine. Sanin says that he and other young filmmakers are concerned with plans to scale back Dovzhenko Film Studios and begin developing the studio's valuable location as real estate.
"The film theater chains [here] are all owned by Russian sponsors and will only screen Russian films. For a Ukraine film to even play in a cinema we must rent the theater ourselves. It's a controlling structure that is effectively freezing out Ukrainian pictures," Sanin told bluntreviews.com.
anuary 31, 2004
Natsional'na Trybuna
New York
National Tribune - The first Ukrainian film being considered for a Best Foreign Oscar nomination was viewed by the Hollywood Academy on January 9. Mamay qualified for the group of fifty seven foreign films considered for this year's nomination. On January 27 five of those films will be nominated by the Academy's foreign film committee.
"It is a picture Ukraine can be proud of," commented Mike Kohut, who has been nominated for sixteen Academy awards and president of Sony Post Production. In the opinion of this honored member of the Academy the picture is "brilliant, with spectacular cinematography, all done very beautifully done and very well. "
Donald Trachtenberg, a veteran member of the Academy's Best Foreign Picture Nominating Committee, said Mamay is "absolutely gorgeous. I loved the synthesis and use of visuals and sound. The images and music tell such a strong story that dialogue becomes secondary." "I look forward to seeing more Ukrainian pictures in the future and will definitely go see the picture Ukraine submits next year," Trachteneberg said.
Mamay is the name of the Kozak archetype depicted in Ukrainian folk art as a warrior-monk enjoying a moment of zen-like serenity. The Mamay of art is typically seated cross legged under a tree and is surrounded by various possessions and attributes, including pistol, spear, sword, horse, wine cup, pipe, sometimes playing the Kozak bard stringed instrument, the kobza. In Tartar, Mongol and Buryat languages, the word Mamay (pronounced "mam-eye") is used to frighten children as a "little devil" or "bad spirit."
Critics agree that one of the film's strongest features is the music composed by Alla Zahajkevych. "She took the lullabies and folk melodies from the Ukrainian and Tatar cultures," Sanin said in a phone interview. The fusion of visuals and music has been described as "hypnotic" and "psychedelic" in the press.
Leslie Felperin reviewed Mamay for Variety magazine in December 2003. She wrote that the film "feels more like a work of folkloric painting brought to life than a traditional movie. Nevertheless, despite the tragic ending, one might read the picture as an allegory pleading for cross-cultural tolerance, a very contemporary theme given current strife in the nearby Caucasus region.
The film was screened twice during the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 15 and 16. One of the showings was reviewed by critic Emily Blunt who spoke to the director Oles Sanin. He told her "'Audiences in Ukraine are sick of action films and violence... Mamay is a more an audio visual art form, it's like a ballet of film,' It sure is. The film is simply stunning. He and his crew have created a masterpiece - and on something like a $200,000 budget."
During his stay in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, Sanin was accompanied by Peter Borisow president of the Hollywood Trident Foundation. "Several Academy members made exceptionally favorable comments ranging from 'brilliant' to 'a young Ukrainian Fellini,'" Borisow said, "the fact that the Academy screened the movie at prime time on a Friday night is very prestigious." Borisow arranged last-minute translation and subtitling before the Academy screening for four hundred viewers. "In Palm Springs, Mamay was very well received: the screenings were well attended and people stayed behind to discuss the movie with Oles."
Mamay is Oles Sanin's first full length feature film. The thirty year old Ukrainian wrote, directed and acted in the film. Three stories are cleverly interwoven to create the Byzantine mosaic that is "Mamay." Two of the stories are taken from Ukrainian and Tartar oral histories, at a time when Byzantine Christianity encountered Asian Islam on the steppes of Ukraine. Both legends happen to be about three men: three Tatar and three Ukrainian brothers. In the film, their paths cross as they live out their respective legendary dramas preserved in the lore of Ukrainian and Tatar peoples.
The third story written by director and screenwriter Oles Sanin was developed on set in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. The crew was preparing to film a battle scene in Crimea when word of the attacks on the United States came to Ukraine. The consensus was to not proceed with filming the violence of battle. Instead, a cross-cultural love story was introduced: Kozak Mamay is saved and falls in love with the Tartar woman Omay. "Now it is a story where love and honor win in the end," Sanin explained. "I've been asked to bring back more films from Ukraine, it's like we've just been discovered in Hollywood," Sanin said.
Despite the attention and interest in Ukrainian film, Sanin remains very concerned with the general situation in the Ukrainian film industry. Workers of the Dovzhenko Film Studios were recently chased out and the facilities occupied by representatives of a Russian television channel. Since Mamay was completed in January 2003, not one feature length film has been produced in Ukraine. Sanin says that he and other young filmmakers are concerned with plans to scale back Dovzhenko Film Studios and begin developing the studio's valuable location as real estate.
"The film theater chains [here] are all owned by Russian sponsors and will only screen Russian films. For a Ukraine film to even play in a cinema we must rent the theater ourselves. It's a controlling structure that is effectively freezing out Ukrainian pictures," Sanin told bluntreviews.com. The makers and fans of Mamay consider the film's chances of winning an Oscar realistically: it is difficult to compete with multi-million and multinational film productions, as many hundreds of thousand of dollars to promote dome other foreign films for the Oscars. Nevertheless, the film has made a resonance in Hollywood: it was granted a very prestigious screening time by the Academy and has sparked interest to see more Ukrainian cinema.
Note: Mamay was not on the short list of five Academy Award nominations announced on January 27, 2004.
This article originally appeared in print in the January 31 English-language supplement of Natsionalna Trybuna, published in New York.
