Maryna Zheleznyak’s documentary project was created by efforts and at the expense of a group of enthusiasts. Hryhoriy Ivanovych is a principal character of the film. He has a very complicated biography – German concentration camp, release by the Red Army, escaping another camp – the Siberian one, typical life as all had in Soviet times and heart attack at the age of 49. Then suddenly he, a former front-line photographer, finds his lifework that has been holding him here for 40 years already.
The film is focused on a question what motivates a 88-years old man, who for the latest 40 years, in spite of his almost absolute cultural, professional and simply viewer isolation, has been producing a film by film, building a museum, collecting facts and material evidences of life of his fellow villagers, in short, has been fixing time in its finest displays, regardless of such apparent absence of demand from the outside.
„When I met Hryhoriy Ivanovych, I realized immediately that I want to film him” – the film director says. „To film him, his space, where he exists, this destroyed by our generation sense of duty, not before a neighbor, but before something higher, inexplicable, the absence of fear that makes us human,” the author and filmmaker stresses.
Main advices shared by the world famous known film montage specialist have been published by Maryna Zheleznyak on the ‘Synergy’ filmmaker self-education platform: cineblog.livejournal.com.
It should be noted that during four consecutive years Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation has already been implementing Cultural Horizons Program, which is aimed at promotion of Ukrainian culture abroad and integration of Ukrainian art into the world context. Within this Program, the Foundation annually provides Ukrainian artists with travel grants for participating in festivals, exhibitions, competitions abroad and, correspondingly, presenting cultural achievements of modern Ukraine.
