Oleksandr Dovzhenko is perhaps the greatest and most
important Ukrainian filmmaker who ever lived whose Ukraine Trilogy consisting
of Zvenyhora, Arsenal and especially Earth which has been
hailed as one of the greatest silent films ever made defined him as the Godfather
of Ukrainian cinema. A mentor to both Armenian
director Sergei Parajanov (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) and Ukrainian
actress/director Larisa Shepitko (The Ascent), Dovzhenko also bore witness
to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union when he was sent to the front as a war
correspondent which characterized his screenplays for his Russian
wife/director/actress Yuliya Solntseva’s Ukraine WWII films Chronicle of Flaming Years and The Enchanted Desna. After his death at only the age of 62,
Dovzhenko only directed a total of seven films himself though his legacy
continued with the formulation of the Kyiv based Dovzhenko Film Studios named
in his honor and responsible for some of the country’s greatest movies.
And yet both his life story and his art’s longevity after his death were fraught with battles over Soviet and now Russian authorities keen on erasing him from existence. Dovzhenko himself worked in the company formed in 1927 that was ultimately renamed after him in 1957 but still found his work at odds with authoritarian demands. Which brings us to 2026 amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war which resulted in the world famous Dovzhenko Film Studio being hit by Russian missile strikes as recent as both June and October, destroying some 100,000 costumes and clothing items used in many of their films, making the threat to Dovzhenko’s legacy and life’s work all the more urgent. While efforts to contain the damage are ongoing with some of the films on their website also licensed to apps like Klassiki, it was only natural in the wake of this that a biographical drama of some sort chronicling the emergence of Ukraine’s seminal filmmaking giant into prominence would come about.
And yet both his life story and his art’s longevity after his death were fraught with battles over Soviet and now Russian authorities keen on erasing him from existence. Dovzhenko himself worked in the company formed in 1927 that was ultimately renamed after him in 1957 but still found his work at odds with authoritarian demands. Which brings us to 2026 amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war which resulted in the world famous Dovzhenko Film Studio being hit by Russian missile strikes as recent as both June and October, destroying some 100,000 costumes and clothing items used in many of their films, making the threat to Dovzhenko’s legacy and life’s work all the more urgent. While efforts to contain the damage are ongoing with some of the films on their website also licensed to apps like Klassiki, it was only natural in the wake of this that a biographical drama of some sort chronicling the emergence of Ukraine’s seminal filmmaking giant into prominence would come about.
But rather than jump right into his Ukraine Trilogy, writer-director Konstantin Konovalov’s new biographical drama Dovzhenko – First Sight decided to scroll further back to the film he did right before finding his voice with the Ukraine Trilogy in the partially lost Soviet thriller commission piece The Diplomatic Pouch. Set in 1926, Odesa with the city recovering from the remnants of the first World War, we get a modern rendering of early twentieth century life in the film and theater world where jazz music, dance parties, drinking and sinful indulgences creep up on you. Amid this we find a young Oleksandr Dovzhenko (Hryhorii Baklanov) proposing directing Zvenyhora to the film studio head Pavlo Nechesa who offers him a deal to make his film provided he does the Soviet propaganda film The Diplomatic Pouch praising state security authorities first including the installation of a meddling authority guard to ensure he doesn’t stray from the task at hand. Dismayed but sweet talked into going along with it by his friend and studio editor-in-chief Yuriy Yanovsky (Maksym Samchyk) along with his stage theater actress girlfriend Ida Penzo (Polina Vasylyna), Dovzhenko reluctantly agrees while also actively deploying his own brand of rewrites in direct conflict with authoritarian demands.
As the unlikely trio bands together over Dovzhenko’s answer to their requests, passions run high with the three falling in love and having an enjoyably naughty nudity filled triangular romantic interlude reminiscent of the one in Andrew Dominik’s Blonde which drew nervous giggles from the Ukrainian audience watching it. While indeed a likely aspect of Dovzhenko’s life detailing an unlikely sexual friendship of sorts ala Babylon which took place roughly around the same time, it’s an unflattering episode in the director’s life being portrayed. That however doesn’t slow down authorities from turning up the heat including the head state guard taking Dovzhenko on a little tour of how they execute dissenters for not following state guidelines, airing out direct threats of violence and intimidation against the filmmaker for daring to have a voice. For awhile the aggressive measures take effect until Dovzhenko finds his own inner fighting spirit to get back on the horse and make ostensibly an assigned propaganda project his way whether authorities like it or not.
A nuanced portrait of a complex historical filmmaking figure on the precipice of finding his auteur voice and niche and deploying his Ukraine Trilogy, Dovzhenko – First Sight interspersed with wartime memories and fears of authoritative execution presents the artist as young, confident and visionary but still not quite at the status that made him world famous quite yet. Played excellently and handsome with Hryhorii Baklanov as the titular Dovzhenko, the filmmaker comes across as under intense pressure from authorities but with a singular internal drive inclined to drive back against it rebelliously. Maksym Samchyk makes the character of his friend Yuriy Yanovsky a well-dressed dandy who also not only nudges the director into going through with a project he has cold feet on but seems to encourage a threesome with his lover/actress Ida Penzo played with near Helen Mirren naked reckless sexual abandon by Polina Vasylyna including a daylight beachside nude frolic that stirs the lusts of both of her male suitors. Though moviegoers seemed taken aback by her scenes, it struck me as endemic to the times along with a kind of ‘make love not war’ rebelliousness to them.
Visually speaking the production is digitally lensed in scope 2.35:1 in bright luminous colors interspersed with alluring softly lit nighttime vistas by Volodymyr Huievskyi who captures the film’s movie-set and Soviet-era Odesa production design by Dmytro Sviatkin beautifully. Though some close-ups of train gears churning early on seemed to contain aliasing, the film wisely has Dovzhenko commenting on the importance of displaying train usage in his work as a kind of driving force symbolic of the Ukrainian spirit. Most curiously for the project however is the hiring of Japanese avant garde composer and trumpet player Jun Miyake best known for his work on Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary film Pina, giving the film an authentic period musical quality with more than a few depictions of big band numbers at fancy clubs. From a filmmaking standpoint, Dovzhenko – First Sight is well made but I also have to wonder if this was just a preamble piece to what could become a series further chronicling in greater detail the evolution of the legendary filmmaker’s career. A brief end-credits bookend showing pictures with subtitles of the real people involved is helpful but again doesn’t quite hammer home the seismic importance the director’s subsequent Ukraine Trilogy would have on world cinema for a century.
In limited release via Ukrainian Films USA, Dovzhenko – First Sight is a good (not great) treatment of the country’s most important film legend emblematic of Ukrainian Cinema as a cultural art form and storytelling tool. Some of it is indeed sensationalistic like leaning into his group sexing or asking Polina Vasylyna to strut around nude, but in terms of trying to convey the first time the legendary filmmaker first started pushing back against authoritarian desires it captures the gestation of a major artist finding his voice pretty well. Still if you really want to get to know Dovzhenko as a person, as an artist and as a screenwriter, the best medicine is to simply watch his works including the ones made in his name after his death. Running a brisk 99 minutes or so, it will make for a good historical drama for Ukrainian cinephiles as well as film historians curious about dramatizing aspects of the multi-textual and layered life of Oleksandr Dovzhenko. I was just hoping it would speak to Dovzhenko’s artistic triumphs rather than be a sexy and sometimes scary preamble to the great director’s career.
--Andrew Kotwicki