The Q&A: Inside Ukrainian Film, with Prof. Bohlinger

RIC Professor and Director of Film Studies Vincent Bohlinger, an expert on Russian and Soviet film, taught a course last spring on Ukrainian cinema and organized a Ukrainian Film Series at the college that included live Zoom discussions with the filmmakers. In this Q&A, Bohlinger discusses some of the Ukrainian films that have emerged since Russia’s initial 2014 invasion.

Professor Bohlinger, how are Ukrainian films reflecting on the war?

Some films directly document the crimes being committed by Russia. For instance, the documentary “Intercepted,” which is still in production, consists of secretly intercepted phone calls of Russian soldiers to their families back home. You hear a soldier telling his wife that he has stolen makeup for her along with size 38 New Balance sneakers from the home he just looted. “Grab whatever you can,” she says. “We always need t-shirts.” In another phone call a serviceman describes fellow soldiers shooting an unarmed woman dead in front of two children. “Why not?” his wife responds. “She’s considered an enemy, too.”

Other Ukrainian films are examining what it’s like to live under siege. “The Earth is Blue as an Orange” is a documentary that won the Directing Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It’s about a single mother and her children who make a film about living life in a war zone. There’s a kind of absurdism and sweetness to this film. It’s about the magic of moviemaking.

You said one of the ambitions you had for your course on Ukrainian cinema was to showcase a Ukrainian cultural identity that is distinct from Russia. How are filmmakers defining a separate Ukrainian identity?

Though the boundaries between Russia and Ukraine are clear, the boundaries of culture are not. In some films there’s a kind of nostalgia toward the old Soviet heritage that both Russia and Ukraine share. For instance, in the documentary “Heat Singers,” the workers at a heating plant, which provides heat to all the homes in the town, form a choir. Everyday, the townspeople are on the phone yelling at the workers and accusing them of not doing their jobs because they have no heat. But once a week, the workers stop everything to rehearse old songs, even dressing in traditional clothing. It’s a very Soviet mentality. They’re still reenacting some bygone day, even when facing all the difficulties inherited from those bygone days.

As far as the Ukrainian cultural identity, I think it’s still being figured out. I think Ukrainian cultural identity is more about mindset. Ukrainians are consciously moving toward a European and Western mindset around democracy, freedom, the right to self-governance and self-determination. I think we’re watching cultural formation happen in real time.