I was invited to be a member of the international film jury at the fifth Mykolaichuk Open Film Festival in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. It’s a relatively young festival, but significantly it begun the same year Putin’s forces engaged in a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
I felt a strong sense of needing to be out there, to further my understanding of what was going on and lend any kind of support I could – so I accepted their jury invitation and offered to provide a masterclass in ‘Making Horror’, and to also screen my recent film Whistle in what would become its Ukrainian Premiere.
©Corin Hardy
I first flew to Romania, and was driven across the border into Ukraine as the country is under martial law and no flights can enter/leave presently. The border crossing was delayed by a few hours, and I learned it was because the previous night Putin had attacked the capital city of Kyiv, heavily bombing landmark, educational and cultural buildings – including tragically, their beloved 1000-year-old Pechersk Lavra monastery (equivalent to the Notre Dame).
The festival’s motto is ‘The brave are always lucky’, more commonly phrased as ‘Fortune favours the bold’.
As well as the battles being fought on the front lines, these kind of attacks on Ukrainian culture, history and identity are designed to crush their spirit. And so the Mykolaichuk Film Festival – named after Ukraine’s own iconic actor and film-maker Ivan Mykolaichuk – is a part of the defence, using culture, art, music, poetry and film to strengthen their unity, identity, cognitive resilience, and to help bolster the Ukrainian spirit in this time of war and misinformation.
©Corin Hardy
The festival’s motto is ‘The brave are always lucky’, which may be more commonly phrased as ‘Fortune favours the bold’__. Either way, I felt immensely lucky to be out there with them, together with fellow jury members David Mackenzie (director of Hell Of High Water, Outlaw King, Young Adam) Mike Downey OBE (prolific UK and international director, producer, author and activist) and Ukrainian writer-directors Iryna Tsilyk (The Earth Is Blue As An Orange, Rock, Paper, Grenade) and Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Pamfir, Silent Flood) to watch movies, deliberate over local food and drink, meet the locals, and trade stories. Upon arrival, we were warmly ushered into the ‘Mykolaichuk Centre’, a modern building and exhibition space, home to a single large cinema screen where most of the festival took place.
©Mikhailo Kriliuk
I’d been on a film jury once before, at Italy’s Torino Film Festival, and it was much more exhausting than I had expected! You find yourself becoming custodian of the films you care most about, and jury deliberations can become quite heated as you fight and defend the ones that affected and impressed you the most. But not always everyone feels the same about the same movies… I wondered if this would be a similar experience.
There were eight very different films in the International Film category, from South Korea (People And Meat), Romania (3 Days In September), Ukraine (Our House Is On Fire), UK (Queen At Sea), China (Now I Met Her), Mexico (Rock, Weed & Wheels) and Brazil (Heart Of Darkness) and more than a couple had me reduced to shuddering tears in my cinema seat. (Emotional, good, heart-felt tears!)
©Mikhailo Kriliuk
I also sought out a few Out Of Competition films, including an epic Chinese animated feature called Another World, and when festival organiser Alex Malyshenko passionately recommended a trip to the city centre to an old cinema built inside a former synagogue (The Czernowitz Synagogue was closed in 1940, and repurposed to be used as a movie theater in 1959) to watch a 1968 Ukranian folk horror, David, Mike and I embraced the trip. And we were not disappointed! It was called The Eve Of Ivan Kupalo, directed by prolific Ukrainian filmmaker Yurii Illienko.
It was an extraordinary experience sat in the cavernous Ukrainian synagogue and beholding the vividly striking images and mind-boggling compositions involving practical special effects, miniatures, masks and impressive, lavish choreography and cinematography. Alex explained that Robert Eggers had selected and screened The Eve of Ivan Kupalo in New York’s Lincoln Centre as part of a series of films that inspired his take on Nosferatu. Of the films he chose, including Yurii Illienko’s film, Eggers said: “It’s a world of Gothic romance, fairy tales, and folklore, with a passion to transport the audience to another time, another place, and another way of thinking and believing.” I could see why he had chosen it. It was like nothing I had ever experienced.
©Mikhailo Kriliuk
On Thursday I presented a masterclass in ‘Making Horrors’ to a predominantly female audience (so many of the men are conscripted to the frontlines of war) using visuals and storyboards to show my journey from stop-motion and music videos, to making The Hallow, The Nun and Whistle. And they were a hungry crowd, keen to ask many questions about filmmaking, horror, storytelling, mythology and scares. One of them asked: “What in horror scared you the most?”. I said that it sometimes feels at odds, making a horror movie when the real scares are on the daily news, beamed into our feeds, out there in the real world. That that’s what scares me the most! But I hoped that cinema and movies, horror included, can somehow provide us with a valuable escape even for a few hours. The audience agreed.
I felt sad to leave such inspiring, resilient-minded and strong-spirited people.
As if running a film festival wasn’t enough to oversee, on a couple of occasions during the week, I learned that Alex had had to make the 12-hour train ride back to Kyiv, to also fulfil his duties in the Ukrainian Military. He can’t have had a lot of sleep… But come the time of my screening of Whistle, he was back to introduce it with me, and I was able to thank him, the festival, and the Ukrainian audience for warmly welcoming me and the jury.
It was a joyous screening and I conducted an impromptu Q&A afterwards, stood out on the Mykoliachuk Centre forecourt, answering more questions about the film, the soundtrack, Iron Maiden, the death sequences and more, before we all hustled back to the hotel because of the curfew all across Ukraine. There, we heard stories of individuals and families and the terrible and traumatic effects of the ongoing war.
©Corin Hardy
Later I stood looking out from my own hotel room balcony, humbled by the stories I had heard as a thin orange crescent moon, and Venus above it, hung over the pin-drop silent and dark city of Chernivtsi.
We made our final jury deliberations, and it was affirming to know that we all unanimously aligned on our favourite choices for the winners of the International Grand Prix going to Yang Jong-hyun’s touchingly bittersweet street comedy People And Meat – about a trio of lonely senior citizens in Seoul, finding unexpected friendship when they begin a series of amateur restaurant heists (or, dine-and-dashing). Please look out for this one! And our Special Mention was awarded to Lance Hammer’s raw and deeply emotional drama Queen At Sea about a single mother (Juliette Binoche) struggling to cope with her elderly mother’s advanced dementia, her stubborn stepfather, and teenage daughter. This wouldn’t usually be my go-to kind of film, but it was incredibly well made, un-sensational and gripping and also featuring Oscar-worthy performances from Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall and Binoche. Seek it out!
Departing at the end of my week in Chernivtsi, I felt sad to leave such inspiring, resilient-minded and strong-spirited people. The sense of community, passion, solidarity and courage was so evident everywhere and it made me reflect on our own country, and the rest of the world. We could sure learn a thing or two from Ukraine and what Mike Downey referred to as its “fierce defense of democracy, freedom, and human dignity.”
I hope that the Mykolaichuk Festival will go from strength to strength and be able to celebrate its sixth year next year, without the ongoing threat of the Russian Invasion.
“The brave are always lucky”, indeed.
“Slava Ukraini!”
©Mikhailo Kriliuk
With thanks to Alex Malyshenko and the Mykolaichuk Open Film Festival team, including Liza Sushko and Olha Aladko. For more information of the Mykolaichuk Festival, click here.
