During the past 13 years as an independent nation, Ukraine has struggled to develop its diplomacy, military, economy and cultural identity. But these days, a nation cannot truly be a nation without its own television programs - or can it? The Observer contacted Dmitry Kharitonov, general producer at STB television station to discuss these and other related issues.
Unlike its big brother Russia, which has had a film industry since the dawn of cinema, Ukrainian industry, film or otherwise, was totally unprepared for the new freedoms that it was presented after the Soviet Union broke up. "We are hopelessly behind Russia," says Kharitonov, who works both in Moscow and Kyiv, producing and directing documentary films and television series.
Kharitonov, 37, has been in journalism for 15 years. He started off in Kharkiv and then moved to Kyiv around 10 years ago, where he has been employed by more than one major television channel. Now he has his own studio, which means he can write a script, shoot a film and then sell it to a television station to air. In Moscow, he works for a studio called Smak. He also writes detective novels, a popular genre for print and television in both countries. In short, he wears a lot of hats.
When one thinks of Russian cinematography, giants like Sergey Eisenstein, with his silent movie the Potemkin (1925) or Andrey Tarkovsky's space drama Solaris (1972). Ukrainian's like Oleksandr Dovzhenko, although considered of equal ranking, enjoy less mass popularity. In addition, Dovzhenko's films were Soviet not Ukrainian produced.
So does that mean if Ukrainian directors, actors and cameramen want to do their thing they should go to Moscow? "If you want to do a film in Moscow, you find a producer and he makes
a decision on the spot," says Kharitonov. "In Ukraine, the producer might hire an actress, then go on vacation with her to the Seychelles islands, where he will spend the money for the film. And the worst part is that he has wasted your time."
Moscow has more resources, and thus people of talent who want to develop them will go there or elsewhere, he explains. But the relationship between the two country's film industries is more complicated. Many Russian films are shot in Kyiv because it's cheaper, says Kharitonov. Film studios like Kyiv's Dovzhenko (named after the deceased director) are always booked up. The financing comes from up north but Ukrainians get jobs in productions that will be shown in both countries. National aspirations have little bearing here. Everything is run like a business, with cost, resources, market and consumers setting the pace.
"It's always more profitable to be a friend rather than an enemy," says Kharitonov about relations with Russia. And why not? Ten years ago, in Russia or Ukraine, one had a choice between old Soviet films or new American ones with cheap voice-overs that made both languages inaudible. In the last few years, Russian-language film has had a rebirth that got a kick start with joint productions like East West (Russian and France) or the Barber of Siberia (US Russia). Camera crews developed their skills creating television serials, which immediately began appearing in Ukraine. More recently, Ukraine has been getting its own television series: i.e. in Ukrainian.
But alas, TV does not consist of soap operas and films alone. News broadcast by major Ukrainian television stations have often been criticized for towing the official line. But when the country was thrown into upheaval over who really won the first presidential elections in November, many, including STB, made a serious effort to be seen as objective.
"I have always thought that a journalist has to believe what he writes or says," Kharitonov emphasizes. "But every channel has it owner as well."
That having been said, there are certain journalistic ethics recognized throughout the world, and dozens of Ukrainian journalists have demanded that they be respected in Ukraine as well. Kharitonov said he "is cautiously optimistic" that this will be the case. "When a person gets a chance to get up from his knees, even one knee, he won't want to go back down on them."
Whatever the outcome of Ukraine’s political thaw and its concommitant influence influence on the media, the energetic and erudite Kharitonov is already moving forward on his own as a filmmaker.
"If an idea pops into your head to do a film about something, forget it, you'll end up doing something banal," he says, referring to the repetition of themes by documentary filmmakers. Documentary films are a popular genre in Ukraine and Russia. They don't cost a lot to make and allow directors to release their creative energies.
Kharitonov, a history buff and avid traveler, often finds an interesting angle on an old subject. For example, in December, STB featured a week of his documentary films on subjects like the sinking of a ferry carrying wealthy Muslim pilgrims in the Red Sea several years ago. In the film, called the Revenge of Allah, Kharitonov finds the divers who recovered the sunken treasure, examining the misfortune that befell them afterwards.
In another film, entitled "Winston Churchill, Dead or Alive," the tele-journalist looks into the turning point in the famous British prime minister's career: when he escaped captivity in South Africa during the Boer War as a young man. The idea is that everyone knows the Winston Churchill of WWII, but few have ever wondered about the turning point in his life that made all the later events possible.
It is these turning points that make or break people and countries. Ukraine may be going through one right now. Which way should it turn? "Ukraine should use its place between east and west" to develop itself rather than falling into one camp or another, advises Kharitonov. Like its actors and directors, the country needs to gather experience where it can, while continuing to develop its own talents. Otherwise, the one and the other risk ending up in the "garbage heap of history," he warns.
Cooperation with Western producers and filmmakers is, of course, equally desirable. Is there anything about the way, for example, American TV has developed that Ukraine should try to avoid? "I wouldn't want our programs to become as inane as they have in the US," said Kharitonov.
The Ukrainian viewer may still have a limited choice in programming, much of which is imported, but he also tends to be more critical, due to the fact that he sees films and series from several countries and thus gets more than one point of view. The question is whether local television stations will continue to show originality when advertising revenues eventually reach the level where they can support themselves.
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