The series “Transporter”: stories of war and strong women, told by men – Publications

She is a Ukrainian-speaking psychologist who is starting her journey as an insta-therapist. And a resettled woman from Luhansk. He is a Russian-speaking abusive man. In the past, he was the head of the culture department of the Luhansk Regional State Administration. On February 23, 2022, she gets behind the wheel of her car in Kyiv to go to Kharkiv and finally break up with him. On the way, he spontaneously picks up a female passenger…

This is the beginning of the 10-episode Ukrainian series “Transporter”, which will be shown by the largest European broadcasters in Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and other countries on the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion. The rights to show were also sold to Japan, Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and to the European NVO. Ukrainians will start watching the series on the STB TV channel on February 25.

The editor of UP.Kultura Tetyana Pushnova has already seen the first episodes and tells why Ukrainians should watch it and what viewers around the world will learn about Ukraine from it. She tried to do it without spoilers.

Women

Her name is Lidia, her role is played by Anastasia Karpenko. This characteristic actress can be seen in the movie “How’s Katya?”, currently showing in Ukrainian cinemas. For her work in this film, Anastasia won the “Best Actress” prize at the Locarno Festival.

The main character of “Transporter” is a restrained woman of 40+ in everything: in the manner of communication; in the image – a black sweater under the neck, a strict brown coat, in which she will live, it seems, the entire series. She has a gray unassuming Skoda, in which the main events take place. In a calm voice, Lydia talks about overcoming anxiety to her followers on Instagram on that very Wednesday – the last peaceful day before the full-scale invasion.

Only some of Lidia’s actions reveal an inner rift, which Anastasia Karpenko masterfully reveals gradually – from scene to scene, from series to series. The tragedy of the main character’s life, her pain and her losses do not fall on the viewer all at once and with a burst. Although it immediately becomes clear that throughout the season we will watch a detective drama of personal and state betrayal, which unfolds against the background of war. And this war began long before February 2022.

In contrast to the image of the main character, Lidia’s first companion – manicurist Olga – appears as a somewhat caricatured character. She violates other people’s boundaries without a second thought: she talks a lot, asks uncomfortable questions about her personal life, brags about her long acrylic nails, clumsily takes out a fat blond guy from foil with them, without asking the driver if it’s okay for her to be in a cramped cabin with its pungent smell.

Olga seems to have been created to use the stereotypical image of Ukrainian women and create a recognition effect for the foreign viewer.

Just as unrestrained, she pours out a personal drama on the head of her carrier in the somewhat absurdist style of “Kaidash”. In order not to spoil it, I will briefly describe the climax of this drama: the guests of a village wedding find a naked groom in the garage who is not with the bride at all. I laughed out loud at this scene, although I do not rule out that it may seem artificial to a foreign viewer.

Actually, the actress Khrystyna Fedorak, who plays the manicurist Olga, may be familiar to Ukrainians from the role of the accountant Svetka in the TV series “Catch Kaidash”.

The war, which finds both women on the road, erases the caricature of Olga’s image and the differences between the heroines. And the unexpected finale of the village drama on the ruins of a house destroyed by Russian shelling confirms the main character in her choice. Lydia remains in Ukraine to take people out of the war zone – strangers, strangers, brave and cowards, sometimes unpleasant and aggressive, affected by war, … but people.

Thus, the mistress of her husband Inga (Olena Oleynikova, “My beloved Strashko”) finds herself in Lydia’s car salon. Which, in addition to realizing the depth of adultery, sets the stage for the detective story of state treason. And the apparent difference between women at the beginning of the series is destroyed in the end by the discovery of a common tragedy that happened in the Luhansk evacuation bus in 2014.

The cramped interior of the Skoda is replaced by a psychological office, where Frenchwoman Christine, Odesa resident Tatyana and other passengers tell their stories to the therapist Lidia. And she tries to break through the realities of war and bring them to healing. And also to deal with the depth of her husband’s fall and her blindness to who he really is and always has been.

Men

His name is Dmitry. And from the first appearance in the frame, he can be identified as the main villain. He is Lidia’s husband. He is embodied by the actor Ihor Koltovsky (the school director in the film “Bad Roads”).

He, she and his lover meet in a Kharkiv apartment. From the reaction of all three to the first explosions far outside the window, you can understand that they have been living with war for a long time: they have more important things to do than fear. All of them are much more annoyed by the barking of his mistress’ spitz.

The narrators of this story, showrunner Evgeny Tunik (the series “The First Swallows”) and director Arkady Nepytalyuk (his “Lessons of Tolerance” are now playing in cinemas) offer us a completely stereotypical picture in this scene. Before us is a middle-aged egoist-manipulator with a corresponding “attribute” in the form of a young lover doll: blonde, pouty lips, in furs, with a dog under his arm.

His main task is to get a divorce, preserving the status quo “family man of the year” and social capital. Lydia’s main task is to finally get a divorce. For his sake, she agrees to take Inga to Poland.

In this scene, there is a lot from the male point of view – on a strong woman who, as it were, can not notice her lover for so long. And now, when you can no longer hide her, he just agrees to spend the day with her in the closed space of the car. On a man who, despite all the disgrace, looks neither pitiful nor caricatured. In contrast to his mistress, who seems to have been written off from anecdotes.

On the one hand, this is how the director and showrunner construct recognition, which is important for involving the viewer in the plot. On the other hand, will the actresses be able to add female voices to this story when the development of the male-conceived plot deconstructs these stereotypes? I would like those who read up to this point to watch the series and find the answer to this question for themselves.

War

Restraint and minimalism are characteristic not only of the main character. This is the style of the entire series, starting from the cramped space of the car interior, where the main events unfold, to filming, color correction and … description of the war.

Bloody scenes, bright explosions and other similar content that usually get into news releases are not abused here. There is no testosterone-fueled pathos heroism, excessive hand-wringing, and tear-jerking scenes. But there is a lot of human grief here, which has been accumulating for 10 years. It is narrated carefully and with empathy, stimulating the viewer’s empathy.

At the same time, this is a dynamic, interesting movie that holds the audience’s attention, filled with content that is understandable to both those who live in the war and those who observe its development outside the borders of Ukraine. It is about a war that cannot be accepted, but one has to live in it, about the past that must be dealt with in the end, otherwise it will continue to eat you up, and about the hope that man can give to man.

In this film there is also a reminder of the hidden level of this war. The sign “Head of Culture Management of the Luhansk Regional State Administration” next to the Russian-speaking member of the jury at the beauty contest and his role in the plot about betrayal. She is like a diagnosis that the film team sets for the entire state system of cultural management. This rusty Soviet factory of kitsch, which is only able to inhibit the development of Ukraine, keeping its culture within the provincial framework at the request of Russian imperialism.

A full-scale war and daily threats in the rear, filming between air alarms and missile attacks, a crisis in the media market and the labor market… Even if we ignore these factors, it can be argued that the TV series “Transporter” from the Ukrainian company StarLightMedia and the French film studio Gaumont “Transporter” – unique Ukrainian cinema. Filmed without state funds, without the involvement of the “state culture management system” mentioned above. What is also a peculiar diagnosis for her…