There are days when the cinema is hit by something stronger than the most powerful fiction. In the premises of Les Films d’ici, Porte de Montreuil, in Paris, we meet the producer Laura Briand, while the face of her Ukrainian alter ego, Aleksandra Kostina (Bosonfilm), appears on the computer screen, always in Kyiv. Aged 36, her hair disheveled, the producer gives us a few precious minutes before taking the plane to reach Paris, on the eve of the release of the first feature film by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, The Oath of Pamfir – revealed at Cannes, at the Directors’ Fortnight, under the initial title Pamfir. The story of a father who despite himself plunges back into smuggling, in the border region between Ukraine and Romania, to save his son’s future.
The visual and narrative power of this tragedy marked the festival-goers: the director of photography of the film, Nikita Kuzmenko, childhood friend of the director, is a young Ukrainian prodigy who also shoots clips for stars (Hold Me Closerby Britney Spears and Elton John, wild side, by Cardi B, etc.). “At Dmytro, there is a virtuosity of the place of the camera, with sequence shots that require a lot of work, of setting up. I worked years ago with Alain Resnais, who also had this sense of orchestration »says Laura Briand.
Author of the multi-award-winning short film Weightlifter (2018), about a weightlifter on the eve of a competition, “Dmytro” is a filmmaker working on the detail “to the point of obsession”, emphasizes Aleksandra Kostina. “For the filming of Oath of Pamfir, a Ukrainian, French, Polish and Chilean co-production, the preparations lasted eight months. The scenes were shot in sixteen villages, the actors are mostly local actors, they lived on the site for two months before the shooting,” says the Ukrainian producer, winner in September of the “golden scholarship” – Gold Felloship for Women – from the Academy of Oscars (with the American Karishma Dube), a prize rewarding film professionals. At the 2023 Oscars, Ukraine will be represented by filmmaker Maryna Er Gorbach, director of KlondikeGrand Prix at the Namur Festival (Belgium), also awarded at Sundance and the Berlinale.
“The camera as a gun”
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk belongs to the new Ukrainian wave that has emerged since the 2010s, where Maksym Nakonechnyi also stands out, director of Butterfly Visionpresented this year at Cannes (Un certain regard) and released in theaters on October 11. “These directors grew up in an independent country, but regularly subjected to harsh shocks, tensions and wars. They have learned to rely on themselves, help each other, reinvent their codes. Dmytro has created a collaborative writing platform, Terrarium. This generation has barely had time to hatch. The Russian invasion on February 24 froze a lot of things,” summarizes Aleksandra Kostina.
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