The director of “Forever-Forever” talked about the upcoming premiere in Venice and plans to film “Tiger Hunters”

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On Friday, September 8, the premiere of the film “Forever-forever” directed by Anna Buryachkova will take place at the 80th Venice Film Festival. This year, this is the only film by a contemporary Ukrainian director that will be presented in Venice. He will compete for the award in the special program Orizzonti Extra. “Forever-Forever” is the feature debut of director Anna Buryachkova, a well-known video maker who shot for ONUKA, BRUTTO, Okean Elsa and many other Ukrainian artists. Among her latest works is a video for the song “Heroes die” by the singer and defender Stasik. According to the plot, the main character Tonya (played by Alina Cheban) moves from a school in the city center to a school in a residential area. Here she falls into the company of desperate teenagers looking for trouble on the outskirts of post-socialist Kyiv. And then a love triangle: she falls in love with Zhurik (Zachary Shadrin) and feels attracted to the brother of her friend Sani (Artur Aliyev). The co-author of the film’s script was the well-known Ukrainian director and screenwriter Maryna Stepanska (“Men’s Work”, “Strymgolov”). The director of photography is Lena Chekhovska, who shot the films “Family Portrait” and “Oath” by Maryna Vroda and “Memorial” by Iryna Tsylyk. On the eve of the world premiere of the film “Forever-Forever” in Venice, UP.Kultura asked Buryachkova about expectations from the festival screening, the representative mission of directors at world film events and the appropriateness of filming a feature film about the events of the full-scale war that is ongoing in Ukraine. Anna Buryachkova. Photo: Lesya Mira – If you were asked to describe your film “Forever-Forever” in two or three sentences, to best announce it, what would you say? – First of all, this is really a love song dedicated to the teenagers of the 90s. A movie about teenagers, but for those who have already grown up, but have not grown up. And this is a movie about whether we really need verification by loving eyes in order to feel our existence. To deserve to exist. – On the eve of the premiere in Venice, you presented the trailer of the film. Do you already know when the tape will be released in Ukraine? – There will definitely be a festival premiere in Ukraine. And soon it will be autumn. But we cannot reveal the details yet. The rental is not confirmed at the moment because we have to go through all the festivals first. Hopefully it will be winter-early spring, but it’s hard to tell right now. – Events in “Forever-forever” take place in the 90s. In our cinema, there are quite a few films about these times: “Rhinoceros”, for example, “Me and Felix”, “La Palisade”. Why do Ukrainian directors want to delve into this time so much? – I don’t know about others, I can say why it was important to me. I think we missed something in the 90s – and we had to get back to it. All the movies you named are all different 90s. Because they were very segmented. That is, 1990-1992 are just the 1990s, 1992-1995 are already such gangster 1990s. It’s the end of the 90s for us, a way out of the gangster 90s. In 1998-1999, we were teenagers. And when the Soviet Union finally collapsed, with the freedom that poured out on us, on our parents, no one knew what to do with it. We tried to find some example – and we saw these teenagers only in Western movies. And this attempt to pull on Western life, including teenage life, while continuing to exist in the paradigm of what was around us, was very interesting. A frame from the movie “Forever-forever” – In the trailer you can see the locations of Troeshchyna. Where else did you shoot when you were filming? At what stage did you find yourself in a full-scale invasion? – We finished shooting in December 2021, before a full-scale war. Filmed in Troeshchyna, partly in Borshchagivka. In short, all the panel holes were ours. I’m a girl from the center, but I really like this whole aesthetic. Before the start of a full-scale war, we sat down for editing just in January. While the first draft was being put together, a full-scale war broke out. At that point we stopped, and then there was a whole bunch of adventures in search of additional funding, in search of meaning, why we should continue to make this film at all. Because, of course, in the first months there was simply no strength and no idea how to return to this material. We finished the editing in December, and then went into the post-production process. It was made in the Netherlands, but with Ukrainian specialists. Anna Buryachkova on the set of the film. Photo: Hanna Grabarska – In fact, “Forever-forever” is the only film by a modern Ukrainian director that we are taking to Venice this year. What was your path to the film festival? – For me, Venice was in a certain sense a goal. Of all the three biggest film festivals – Cannes, Berlin and Venice – it was the most interesting for me. Perhaps because of their interest in our project from the very beginning. Maybe because I really like the films that are usually selected for Venice. At some point, when we were not accepted into one of the programs, we got a little depressed – we thought it was over [не попадемо – УП.Культура]. And suddenly it was reported. – How much has the representation of Ukraine at international festivals changed over the past year and a half? Is it harder to do or easier? Is there any other perception of our directors? – It seems to me that we should talk on all platforms that are available to us. The louder the better. And, probably, we should talk not only about this war. That is, we should be presented as a cultural layer that exists. So that we are seen and heard separately from Russia. And this is probably the most important thing. Because there is still this feeling that we are somewhere far away, or such an “appendage”, or there is a “great Russian culture”, forgive me, but there is a Ukrainian culture that is just beginning. This is not true, and it is clear that this was done with Russian money, but none the less. A frame from the movie “Forever-Forever” The more we speak, the more we are heard, seen, the more we exist in the cultural field, the more this cultural field affects the political field. We also pitched the film at Work in Progress in Cannes last year. Indeed, it was difficult psychologically to be among the “holy life”. But this, it seems to me, makes us angrier and more hardened. Because this is not a holiday, this is work. You have to go there, do your job, show the film, tell about what is happening and go on. Probably, we became more aware that we are not just presenting cinema, but we are the face of Ukraine at this moment. – Last year in Venice, the team of the film “Luxemburg, Luxembourg” came out with posters about Ukrainian children who lose their parents because of the war. In Cannes, the “Butterfly Vision” team stood on the red carpet to the sound of a siren. Will you have any such message in Venice? – Yes, there will be a message, we are planning it, but we have to approve it with the festival. Of course we will do it. It’s just that times change and, for example, Maksym Nakonechnyi with a team under sirens in Cannes is one time. The time when it was necessary to close the sky. These messages no longer work, unfortunately. Therefore, we need to look for other stories that will help us communicate this to Europeans now. Here we are trying to find our story and do it in the best way. A frame from the film “Forever-forever” – We talked about the messages that Ukrainian directors bring to the world, but I want to ask about the messages of Ukrainian cinema itself. About how it has changed over the past year and a half? What are his difficulties now and what will it be like when this war is over? – First of all, we still hardly see films made during this time. But there are documentaries that are already coming out. I really want to go to Venice in time to see “20 Days of Mariupol”. It is very important. In the documentary segment, now is a moment when we talk about everything that is painful. Something is already coming out, something should, on the contrary, accumulate. These projects will be, I am sure, very good and very painful. And what we see in art cinema, those high-profile premieres that are released now, are films that were created, conceived and filmed before a full-scale war. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about changes based on the results of what we are seeing now. Due to the fact that, for obvious reasons, not very many, to put it mildly, artistic projects are currently being launched, we will have a certain period of emptiness, perhaps several years. And what will we return to after the end of the war? What will we become after the end of the war? I don’t even know if we can ever feel carefree again. I believe, if not forever, but for a very long time we will carry this dark spot in us. And how we will process it, how we will work creatively with it, will greatly influence what will come out. It is clear that now there will be a lot of opportunistic projects, hyped projects will appear, using events for some of their purposes. But they are probably needed too. Any material is probably needed now. I just wish it was more meaningful and less hyping. The poster of the movie “Forever-forever” – In recent days, the scandal surrounding the film about Mariopol “Yurik” has been going on. It is clear that this is a game feature film in which the events are recreated, so it cannot have documentary authenticity as in the same “20 days in Mariupol”. What is your attitude to such projects? Should we wait with these films or make them anyway? – I think that reproducing events that have not yet had a final conclusion, which have not been lived by a very large number of people, which had a super traumatic effect on people who were in Mariupol or in another place, in any place, in Bucha, in Irpin, to reproduce them so quickly, quite carelessly, distorting is not worth it. I haven’t seen this movie, but judging by the fact that I feel a rush to shoot it sooner rather than later, it’s hype, unfortunately. We are not ready now, in my opinion, to make feature films about what happened to us so recently. Everyone is already traumatized enough not to do this retraumatization straight away. Buryachkova with actors on the set. Photo: Lena Chekhovska – Some of your colleagues, with whom I have the opportunity to talk, say that the films that were made even before the invasion, would have been done differently or not made at all. Do you see in which direction in cinema you will move further? – I have a project that is under development. He received one of the scholarships of the Ukrainian Academy of Netflix. This is the “Tiger Hunters” project [за романом Івана Багряного – УП.Культура]. It will not be easy, it will take time and great effort because it must be done well. Now it is complicated, but it has been in development for quite some time. In my opinion, this is the most cinematic Ukrainian novel ever written. This is a book made for a screen adaptation. And I believe that we need such a film now. Because it is about this vitality, about love for life. And this book is about us now, no matter how strange it sounds. Read also: “It’s like playing Jesus” – American actor Luzar Tversky about his role in “Dovbush”

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