East of the West 2002 / Chroniki vid Fortinbrasa / Ukraine 2001
A visual treatment of the philosophical feminist essays by Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko in which the director constructs an imaginary mythological environment from expressive staged episodes, documentary assemblages and excerpts from historical films. The gloomy fate of Ukraine is likened to the lot of women – as victims manipulated by male totality.
This film is based on the essay collection of the same name by Oksana Zabuzhko, author of the autobiographical prose work Field Research on Ukrainian Sex (1996). The director interprets the philosophical text and feminist intonation of the writer’s view of national consciousness in a timeless cultural environment with an associative fabric of words and expressive images. She constructs the imaginary mythological space of the studied phenomenon from metaphorical actions and performances, assemblages of past events and excerpts from historical films. She thus also evokes Shevchenko’s approach to the female essence and the lot of women in the Ukraine, represented by the female body (the body of culture), tormented and desecrated here by repugnant dwarfs. The latter symbolise male totality – the source of the Ukraine’s passive fate, past and present. The staged episodes, treating the absurd and the grotesque, allegory and parody, also reflect the Ukrainian literary tradition (irrationality and poeticism) and film (Dovzhenko).
30 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Oksana Chepelyk
/ Screenplay Oksana Čepelik/Oksana Chepelyk, Oksana Zabužko/Oksana Zabuzhko
/ Dir. of Photography Volodimir Pika/Volodymyr Pika, Bogdan Pidgirnij/Bogdan Pidgirnyi
/ Music Olexandr Nesterov/Olexander Nesterov
/ Editor Tajsia Bojko/Taisia Boyko
/ Producer Hanna Chmil
/ Production Ukrainian News and Documentary Film Studio
/ Cast Irina Androsova, Gennadij Korženko/Gennadiy Korzhenko, Georij-Grigorij Pilipenko/Georgiy-Grygoriy Pylypenko
Oksana Chepelyk studied at the State Institute of Art in Kiev (1978-1984), which was followed by a research post in Moscow (1986-1988). She then studied at the CIES in Paris (1995) and at Amsterdam University (1998). As an artist she was awarded grants in France, Germany, Spain, USA, Canada and England (1992-2001). From 1993 she organised thirteen solo exhibitions in Europe and America, and participated in a number of joint exhibitions (Russia, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine, France, USA, Sweden, Croatia, Brazil, Austria). She has also attended various festivals focusing on video and new media: 1998 (Kiev, New York, London, Tallinn, St Petersburg), 1999 (Osnabruck, Kiev, Montecatini, Linz, Tallinn, Moscow), 2000 (Paris), 2001 (Paris-Berlin, Oberhausen, Montecatini, Kiev, Liverpool, Moscow). Her debut Chronicles of Fortinbras (2001) reflects her extensive experience in the arts and multi-media.
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