Dzheria (Historical Psychological Drama, full feature UA film)
🙌 As part of 2021 initiative to support Ukrainian film, Nova Ukraine is supporting the film Dzheria – psychological drama, a new take on the Ukrainian literature based on the novel by a master of classical prose – Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky “Mykola Dzheria” (1876). A human quest for freedom set in the XIX century picturesque Ukraine. This initial grant will be spent fully towards the creative development with the focus on research and creation of a unique film setting.
| Donate using PayPal |
- Web: http://dzheriafilm.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DzheriaFilm/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dzheria_film/
🗺️📍Location
Film shooting will take place in 4 regions of Ukraine: Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Odesa. The fundraised amount will help the film team to perform creative development part in its pre-production stage that will allow to create a proper film setting of Ukraine of XIX century and will serve as a great part of Ukraine’s cultural heritage and reference.
🎞 Logline
Young serf Mykola Dzheria is forced along with a few others to escape his village near Kyiv, leaving his beloved wife behind and undertaking a long journey with his friends south, towards the Black Sea while being chased after and fighting to survive.
📽️🙋 About the Director Iryna Pravylo
Ukrainian film director, screenwriter, producer, member of the NGO “Congress of Cultural Activists”, associate professor of the Institute of Screen Arts of Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, member of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, Co-founder and CEO of the «Right Time Studios».
📃 Planned Deliverables
- Script doctoring
- Sketches of key scenes
- Full list of all movie characters
- Sketches/Visual reference for the main ones
- Costume design (development, 2-3 costume production)
- Musical theme development
- Folklore elements research: dances, culinary elements, folk songs, holiday and wedding celebrations
- Workshops with Creative, Culture, History Experts
- Props research and acquisition
- Architectural models for three main setting objects: Dzheria home (xата зі стріхою, Київщина), sugar factory (цукроварня), fisherman homestead (рибацький курінь)
📽️ Why Dzheria / Why Now
Today, the issue of creating a quality Ukrainian film product is more important than ever. Should be noted that the countries with a rich cinematic history have taken the path of film adaptations of national classical literature. The only film adaptation of the“Mykola Dzheria” novel was made in 1927, but the film was lost. That is why our team is taking on the responsibility to make a new rethinking of this work. We see “Dzheria” as a unique opportunity to honor the cultural and literary heritage of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, to recreate the world of Ukraine in the XIX century, show beautiful landscapes and seascapes of Ukraine and at the same time to create a collective film image of the Ukrainian, whose values are extremely relevant to modern viewers. Dzheria’s Odyssey continues, as does the Odyssey of Ukraine: in the struggle for freedom, for a real return home. Moreover, ongoing daily battles with the dream of returning home for a better life is something that is true even today. It is deeply felt by many who now defend Ukraine’s independence on an Eastern front.
🎬 🎶 Creative Developments Elements
To reproduce the authentic signs of the time and images of heroes, the team will conduct the research on iconographic materials and archives on the historical context, architecture, life, traditions.
Characters
А number of sketches of heroes are creating on the basis of anthropological researches of the XIX century
Decorations
The cinematic embodiment of “Dzheria” gives the opportunity to depict Ukraine of the XIX century, recreating the unique world of heroes in natural “scenery”. However, the lost architectural objects will be partly built, partly modeled with the help of computer graphics(during Production period).
Music
Work on the musical design of the film has already begun. It is planned to use synchronous noises, counterpoint with the image, to involve noises and vocal parts in the musical score.The voice of the violin, which is a continuation of the hero’s sadness, becomes the conductor of the musical theme, from time to time entering into a dialogue with folk songs and motifs. Three musical sketches for the three selected scenes of the film project are available with the link: https://soundcloud.com/dzheria-film
Folk traditions and culture
Per script there will be scenes with authentic folklore elements: dances, traditional folk songs, culinary culture, holiday and wedding celebrations.
Costumes
Much attention is paid to the study of the costumes of the heroes. The main task is to bring the texture closer to the historical correspondence, but at the same time to make it alive and organic, to avoid the effect of museum archives.
