Cinematic Releases: Malevych (2024) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Ukrainian Films USA

Soviet Kyiv, Ukraine based Kazimir Severinovich Malevich, born into an ethnic Polish family was at the forefront of the Russian avant-garde artists and art theorists in the early half of the 20^th century.  The originator of Suprematism and founder of the UNOVIS artist collective, the artist worked in numerous styles including Cubism, Fauvism, Symbolism and Impressionism before designing the Black Square painting in 1915.  As he started to branch out into western countries, however, he was forced by Stalinism back into Leningrad and wasn’t allowed to leave the Soviet Union to seek treatment for his cancer diagnosis in 1933 but kept painting until his death in 1935 only at the age of fifty six.  Malevich’s work eventually found its way into film posters, most notably the original Soviet poster for Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse the Gambler which itself was reworked into the Soviet rock band Kino’s album cover for Blood Type.

 
Circa 2024 amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, enter writer-director Daria Onyschchenko’s fleeting time-jumping loosely defined biopic Malevych, a film which tries to cement the avant-garde artist’s collection and style in the context of modern Ukraine and what the true meaning behind the Black Square really was.  More to the point, the film is a hyperkinetic, at times pop-art exercise which seeks to restage many of his paintings and characters in them in war torn Ukrainian buildings or flats.  A coproduction between Ukraine, Serbia, Italy and Switzerland, it tries to answer the question of what Malevych’s heritage really was and what he must’ve suffered for daring to stand his ground against the Soviet regime.  Throughout the film, we jump into the past with Malevych (Vitaliy Azhnov) as he struggles with creative expression, it utilizes a wealth of animation techniques such as a female soldier’s face piece by piece becoming one of his paintings and the film functions less as a straight-laced detail-oriented biopic than as an experimental avant-garde extension of his work.

 
For some viewers, particularly Ukrainian viewership looking forward to a full blown excavation of the famous artist’s life, you might be in for a disappointment.  Yes it completely characterizes the importance of Malevych standing up for his ethnicity but it is otherwise a bit murky in detailing his rise to success.  There’s also, in the time-honored tradition of modern Ukrainian cinema, a lot of sex scenes that are celebratory of physical humanism but dare I say it don’t do a whole lot to advance the story.  Still, between the scope 2.35:1 cinematography by Oleksandr Roschchyn, the subtly mournful score by Milos Jelic and Raffaele Petrucci and the central performance of Vitaliy Azhnov, the film works as an allegorical reaffirmation of the artist’s ethnic background and how his work still resonates today among modern Ukrainians. 

Currently touring the United States vis Ukrainian Films USA who booked a special screening at the local Troy MJR theater and widely attended by Ukrainian viewers who were vocally taken aback by the film’s blunt sex scenes, the film nevertheless proved to be quietly evocative particularly over its scenes transposing his Suprematist artwork onto people and bombed out buildings depicting a silent scream of Ukrainian freedom.  As an outsider it was a learning experience and further emphasizes Malevich’s unique and time-transcending style.  For my first film sponsored by Ukrainian Films USA who have taken it upon themselves to distribute modern Ukrainian movies in the United States, it represents an exciting development for world cinephiles keen on experiencing movies that speak volumes to an entire populace struggling for survival in a time of war.  Historians keen on a comprehensive biopic of the beloved artist might be inclined to look elsewhere, but for the uninitiated like me I think I have a better understanding of what his work still means for modern Ukrainians.

--Andrew Kotwicki