WomenCinemakers vol V WomenCinemakers vol V | Page 22

Holomodor meets cinema
me how to be a director. Of course, this is still a steep learning
curve. I am still developing myself. Only hard-work and
constant learning may give you the best effect. Creating a
movie is magic – and all of the above was realized by a team
of enthusiasts. Without passion and enthusiasm, good effects
are unachievable. And I have some passion in me, and I like
the sorcery.
We want to take a closer look at the genesis of your film:
how did you come up with the idea for Hunger?
The Holodomor stories have been with me since the early
childhood. I was born in St. Petersburg (which had been
known earlier as Leningrad). I was lucky enough to have lived
there until I was twelve. During the summer holidays I used to
visit my grandparents in Ukraine. I have never treated the two
countries as separate organisms – culturally, politically and
militarily. After the fall of the Soviet Union I moved to Poland –
and this is where I live today. I left my two motherlands behind
– Russia and Ukraine – when I was 12 years old.
I was too young to understand some things. However, once I
changed my place of stay, I did not change my mentality – I
never forgot. And memory is important – at least for me. I often
cinemakers // 18
think that even though I was born in 1979, I am still a war-child.
Why? Well, I was raised hearing the stories told by my
grandparents, who tried hard to save themselves, in the times
of omnipresent annihilation. Here I mean 1930’s and 1940’s.
My portfolio includes a volume of short stories, entitled “Five”,
including the stories of the people living in those tough times.
And the volume includes a story which was used to create the
screenplay for Hunger.
We have appreciated your reflective, interior style of film-
making. Hunger features an elegantly structured
storytelling: each shot is carefully orchestrated to work
within the overall structure. How did you develop the
script for this film?
My film tells a story of a woman who was left alone, and had
to face the hunger herself. I do not care about the reasons for
her situation. However, I care about the world in which the
protagonist lives and in which she must take decisions, she
would not even have thought of. The script is indeed, very
thoroughly thought-over. So are the shots. I wanted to tell a
simple story, in order to reveal an important truth, which I have
known from the stories told by my grand parents. The truth
which touched me, subjective truth, truth of my own. I
Yasmine Mahet (France)