Fine movie – “Business as Usual”
New Ukrainian feature film will be presented in movie theaters in early February
Zvychaina Sprava (Business as Usual) is a full-length debut film directed by Valentyn Vasianovych. Its production was 90 percent financed by the state. Ukrainian State Film Agency and production center “InsightMedia” presented the prerelease screening of the movie for film critics and journalists in movie theater “Zhovten.” It was also announced that the film will be on national release: 38 copies will be presented in movie theaters in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and other Ukrainian cities.
Vasianovych earned the reputation of a good documentary maker. His film Old People (2001) won the first prize for the best documentary at the International Film Festival in Baku (2002) and his film Against the Sun (2004) won the prizes from the international jury at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world in Clermont-Ferrand and the Grand Prix of the Short Film Festival in Nancy. The director admits that after trying himself in the production of documentary films, he decided to realize his old dream – create a full-length feature film. Business as Usual also was originally planned as a 20-minute documentary back in 2006. However, after graduating from the school of Polish director Andrzej Wajda, Vasianovych rewrote the script into a full-length feature film.
At first glance the plot of the film is quite simple. It tells a story of a psychotherapist Anatolii, who was fired from his job for a fist-fight with drug addict patients. However, the man is happy about the release, since for a long time he has had the feeling that his life was going in the wrong direction. He believes that he would be able to make a new beginning now that he is free from the burden of his job and would be able to become a poet.
Main characters of the film – doctors, teachers, actors, and the unemployed, are the ordinary Ukrainians nowadays. After the screening the director told that this was his creative vision “to show Ukrainians the way they look in difficult circumstances.” Perhaps, actor Taras Denysenko, who played the role of the protagonist, rendered this idea the best. He convincingly showed the feelings of a man experiencing a “midlife crisis,” who cannot sort out his own problems and by the end of the film gradually falls to the bottom of the society.
“Today we saw a professional Ukrainian film. In fact, it fully justified its title Business as Usual featuring a usual story of a Ukrainian man exploring himself. This is the kind of films we truly need nowadays,” Viktor ANDRIIENKO, director and actor, shared his impressions from the film. Andriienko came to the prerelease screening of the film. “There is no artistic plagiarism or imitation in this film. Unfortunately, even among Ukrainian films we often see myth-America and myth-Russia. Business as Usual is a 100 percent Ukrainian movie. The film was made well from the artistic point of view.”
In the story, unlike his unemployed friend Slavko (Vitalii Linetsky) and wife actress (Lesia Samaieva), who managed to “reset” their lives, the protagonist Tolik ends tragically. The director does not keep the secret of that the film crew made four versions of final part of the film, but he decided to go with the “realistically pessimistic one.”
“We filmed a story that reflects the realities of life today. The main character comes to an end and the final titles appear on the screen. I admit, the first versions had happy ending: Tolik fully recovered and he got back to his family. But things do not happen that way,” said Valentyn VASIANOVYCH in his comment to The Day. “Happy end would look unnatural. Audience would have not believed me.”
Kapranov brothers and director Mykhailo Illienko appear as funny and life-affirming characters against the background of complicated psychological search of the protagonist. Kapranov brothers, playing themselves in the film refused to hire Tolik or publish his poems, and Illienko is presented in the film as a crazy man, who turns the light on 129 times per day in the ward and by doing so he saves the world. “Illienko really saves the world of Ukrainian cinematograph. I didn’t choose this role for him, he did,” Vasianovych explained the presence of his colleague in the film. “This is his main role in life.”
“Playing in a film is a new exciting experience for us. Ukrainian films appear on screens so rarely that when some premiere is announced the audience in advance expects it to be genius, they want it to be a masterpiece. Problems of Bruce Willis, who traditionally rescues the world, are, of course, different from the problems of a Ukrainian doctor Tolik. Our hero is trying to rescue at least himself,” said writer and publisher Vitalii KAPRANOV. “Hollywood approach to rescuing the world is brighter and more spectacular, but the Ukrainian approach looks more plausible. The audience has to clearly understand that this is a complex genre of tragicomedy, which has deep philosophical implications. I advise Ukrainians to support the film with their money – just go to a movie theater and watch it!”
Finally, we would like to note good Ukrainian spoken by main characters, which does not offend the ear of the audience with unnecessary literary or artificial coloring and is perceived very naturally.
Perhaps, the audience should not expect a full-length debut of the film director to be a true artistic masterpiece. But, after you watch this movie, you realize: first film pancake by Vasianovych did not turn out lumpy.
