You're reading: Yushchenko to ask Gibson to film a Ukrainian novel

Holywood actor and famous “Braveheart” director Mel Gibson has got the attention of former President Viktor Yushchenko and one of Ukrainian writers.

Writer Vasyl Shklyar, who famously turned down the best writer’s award and a quarter of a million hryvnias for his “Black Raven” novel in March, wants to screen his novel with the help of Yushchenko and Gibson. During the Lviv Book Forum, Shklyar said that he talked to Yushchenko and filmmakers who “told me that it could work out, because Gibson had already filmed ‘Braveheart’ about Scotland."

The small nation’s uprising against oppressive empires connects Gibson’s film and “Black Raven,” which tells the story of Ukraine’s struggle against the USSR in the 1920s. The novel was published at the end of 2009 and sold some 47,000 copies, which by Ukrainian standards – when a 5,000-copy circulation is considered a success – was record-breaking. Shklyar refused to accept Taras Shevchenko National Prize from President Viktor Yanukovych – the highest award in literary circles – unless Ukraine’s controversial Education Minister Dmitry Tabachnyk resigns.

This controversy and the novel itself sparked another president’s interest. Yushchenko’s spokeswoman Iryna Vannikova confirmed that Shklyar had a meeting with the president and asked for assistance.

“It was Shklyar’s idea to contact Mel Gibson, and Yushchenko agreed to do it,” said Vannikova.
“Yushchenko is not a film producer, but he is a person with a lot of connections. We are already trying to reach Gibson through his people in U.S.”