War as a challenge to television

A project of the channel 1+1, patriotic program “Brave Hearts,” is dedicated to people who showed heroism during the events in the east of Ukraine. The Day announced the launch of the program back in August. It will be noted that the first show proved that there is a great demand for such content in our society, people want to see real new Ukrainian heroes live on central channels, above all the military servicemen. But not       only them. Many people today have proven to be heroes, including doctors, volunteers, mothers of soldiers, and even children. So far, for some reason only the 1+1 channel has noticed them. When will other channels start to adequately react to the demand of society? Why hasn’t television shown these heroes before and offered only television junk to the audience.

“‘Brave Hearts’ show beautiful, clear, and courageous faces. Colonel Serhii Deineko, Colonel Ihor Momot. It is unbearable to think that over these years they have been prevented from proper developing the defense sphere or received adequate payment,” Den/The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa IVSHYNA shared her impressions on her Facebook page after she watched the latest show, “Besides, politicians and oligarchs had been in the focus of society all the time. False ‘celebrities.’ And when the trouble came, it turned that these unloved children are the real children of Ukraine. People of honor. What should be done for the values they embody to prevail in society?”

The Day has talked about this with the host of “Brave Hearts” Akhtem SEITABLAIEV.

“I’m not inclined to exaggerate the meaning of some or other television products, including our show, and believe that people will change their world outlook in a moment after watching it. But with the help of ‘Brave Hearts’ we are trying at minimum to ‘sew’ the country together? With the help of what? With the help of the stories about real people,” the host of the project told The Day, “In every show we present the stories of people who have stayed on the occupied territories, the stories of those who were deceived or have doubts, or weren’t correctly informed. For our team and on the whole the information policy of the channel 1+1 gives a great role to strategically important vector: what is the country we want Ukraine to become? We want it to be a peaceful country, where people dream of bright future and accomplish heroic deeds for this. It makes you proud when you learn the stories of the guests of our program and understand that their work became for them a duty of a warrior and helps them feel themselves as people who cannot be indifferent.

“People who come to our program give me hope that the dreams of people who were killed in Maidan and those who, unfortunately, are killed today, about the country in which they wanted to live will be realized. This is actually the purpose of our show. Of course, apart from that this is a show about human heroism in all of its manifestations. Heroism of the warriors, their parents, the volunteers, the people who are living on the occupied territory, but feel themselves citizens of Ukraine. And they are in a more dangerous situation than we are here, and sometimes even in a more dangerous one than the soldiers at the front line who are surrounded by their brothers-in-arms.”

Which of the stories impressed you the most?

“It won’t be an exaggeration to say that none of the stories we have presented can leave anyone indifferent. But you are right, there are stories after which it is impossible to host the program anymore because this is too much. A volunteer who takes children out of the ATO area. Today he has taken over 200 children out of there. When this person to the question what he dreams about replies that he wants to see every kid he has saved in a children’s park after the war and go on the rides, I as a father of four children can’t stay indifferent. It is hard to listen to this. When you see the eyes of a mother who on the next day after the funeral of her son who died very young, when he was defending his Fatherland, goes to the front, gets to the place where officers of special task units not always can get, this is impressive. When elderly people who have no possibility to help materially, knit socks or bake pies for our soldiers, this convinces me for another time that we are a great nation. And, of course, the stories of our servicemen. Books will be written and films will be shot about them.”

You have brought to the foreground real heroes who really deserve this. But they had lived among us before the Maidan and the war. Why didn’t the Ukrainian television notice them?

“This is a complicated question. Analyzing the situation, I draw the conclusion that, on the one hand, there was no demand. On the other hand, and it is important, I am sure that this was done with a special purpose. It is easy to manipulate people who scarcely know their neighbors, who live with them on the same floor, in the same city, and the same country; people who don’t know their history, those who weren’t taught to love their culture. Especially when their only care is to earn money. This refers to relations between the national minorities in Ukraine, which weren’t made to know one another by the television. I know this from the history of the Crimean Tatars: over all the years of independence a myth was inserted in the conscience of Ukrainians that we are the ‘fifth column’ that is always discontent with everything. Unfortunately, it was only the war that helped us understand that this is not true. Like the fact that heroes are living in our country.

“The land where you live, your flag, your anthem, your language, your history – this was not fashionable. The television made the politicians the ‘headliners’ of so-called cultural and political space. This was done consciously. For decades we have been watching television shows. I don’t assert that everything connected with political talk shows are staged things. There is another thing I     want to say. There has been a clear distortion. Over all the years of independence the television has been unable to teach us that it is fashionable to speak Ukrainian, that it is good to know your history and culture, that it is modern and creative. And when the inner constitution of people is not filled with cultural component, this vacuum gets filled with absolutely different things.

“Current events in Ukraine show that there is no way back for Ukraine and Ukrainian television. Such sacral things as the flag, anthem, and coat of arms have acquired new meanings. Television, theater, and cinema must foster patriotism and love to one’s own country. We just need to define in what formats this should be done, because propaganda can trigger a reverse process. I think this should be done gradually in an elegant, emotional, and correct way.”

The Day started to realize the meaning you attach to “Brave Hearts” back in May. And every week we tell the stories of our heroes, living and deceased, so that the living remembered them.

“Yes, this is an absolutely correct and important work. We mustn’t forget any hero or heroic deed. We simply must unite our efforts. Our defenders will return from the front, and we must maximally help them to harmoniously adapt to the normal life, and we also should become a platform for communication. One of the volunteers of our program told that when he was in captivity people from the other side came simply to talk to him. And our volunteer hadn’t imagined how many normal people lived beyond the front line. They simply weren’t given a normal newspaper to read, weren’t brought to a normal theater, weren’t shown a normal film. And we must work with these people.”

You are a professional actor, director, but it is your first project as a television host. And it is such a powerful emotional show.

“I simply want very much to talk openly with people we invite to out show. To ask them questions we prepare together with the project team (through heated arguments), and this is a huge honor and great responsibility for me as a Crimean Tatar to be a host of such a program, a special responsibility. You see, for all these years we have known that the Kremlin won’t calm down. The entire history of relations of the Crimean Tatars with the Kremlin has not brought anything good to the Crimean Tatars. Neither did it bring any good to Ukrainians.

“I know that many of my compatriots watch our show in Crimea. For me this is a virtual possibility to support connection with them, and even the very fact of presence of a Crimean resident, Crimean Tatar, gives them hope that our fatherland Ukraine has not forgotten about them.”

Who are other members of the program’s team?

“Producer Maksym Shylenko, chief editor Kateryna Shylenko, production director Yulia Lupyr, and a good team of editors, journalists, cameramen, directors, and music editors. We prepare for every show quite emotionally, because all of us are caring people.”

How does the audience perceive the program?

“Very positively. We received tens of letters of gratitude: people share their emotions, offer help to heroes. This program is unique because it is the first one. I must tell that it immediately found its target audience. I don’t want to speak about ratings or that we have an advantage over other projects. Of course, we want the entire country to watch namely our program. But it is impossible to reformat all the viewers. For me ‘Brave Hearts’ is a mirror of the painful processes that are going on in the country.

“The war has brought a lot of tragic things to us. But along with that it has shown real heroes who are the future of Ukraine.”