Ukrainian movie directors are still trying for art house success. A new collection of short movies called “Ukrainian Evil” has been released, but only one of them seems to be gathering some fans.
The movie
called “Beautiful Woman” tells the story of love, affection, treason and even
some sex – involving one librarian’s (one-sided) love affair with the image and
voice of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
The nine-minute
film starts in a library, where the main heroine works. A young librarian gets
charmed by Yanukovych’s billboard outside her window and when she leaves work,
she hears the president’s voice from the other billboard at the bus stop.
When she heard
the voice again, she decided to “stay” with the president for a night of
imaginary love and passion. Later the story turns into a tale of deception and
suffering, the way many real love stories end.
Even though
the imaginary dialogues between the librarian and Yanukovych may be tasteless,
and passion and jealousy scenes poorly played, the movie made me laugh.
However, my
favorite part isn’t about Yanukovych and even not about the main heroine, but
rather about the poignant faces with suffering and disappointment written all over them.
The last
minutes show the faces of women standing at a bus stop. All of them have a
dramatic stamp of sadness and tragedy on their faces. I think this part was
supposed to give the librarian a clue that all of them were dumped by the
president, and maybe not even only women.
For me, it is something very
remarkable about the faces of Ukrainians – never smiling and carefree. And
here’s the larger significance: These are the faces of a nation that has been abandoned
by its president, its parliament and its government, but whose citizens have
never tried hard enough to change things for the better, or to rise above the daily struggle for
survival.
The movie can be seen here.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can
be reached at [email protected].
