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| Images courtesy of MVD Visual |
Eric Weinrib, the coproducer behind Michael Moore’s two
documentaries Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story before making
his directorial debut with the doc Roseanne for President! and the TV special
Between Musk and Mars, joined forces with editor and short film director
Nate Pommer for one of 2023’s more eye-opening rock documentaries with Scream
of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story.
The top to bottom tale of Ukrainian born refugee turned gypsy punk band Gogol
Bordello founder and frontman Eugene Hütz who emigrated from Soviet Ukraine
to New York City as a child, it serves as a biography, a portrait of the multiethnic
band’s formulation and Hütz’s return to his native homeland following Russia’s
ongoing invasion. Executive produced by Liev
Schrieber and released by Vice News Films and MVD Visual on a 2-disc
DVD/Blu-ray combo pack, it serves as both a companion piece to Margarita Jimeno’s
2008 concert documentary Gogol Bordello Non-Stop as well as a career and
life retrospective. It also can be just
plain fun to watch the ferocious uncategorizable untamable energies of a Gogol
Bordello live action concert experience.
Rolling out onto disc and digital platforms around the same
timeframe including Apple TV, Prime Video and YouTube TV, the documentary
comprised of archival as well as newly filmed interviews and concert
performances as well as newsreel footage tracks the group’s emergence from
Ukrainian gypsy punk band to a global movement where bandmates from disparate
walks of life come together for one musical event. Formulating in the lower East Side of
Manhattan around 1999 featuring eight musicians with some members changing
hands over time, the band’s name originated from Nikolai Golgol, the 19th
Century Ukrainian author behind Viy.
Per their impetus, ala Nikolai Golgol’s smuggling of Ukrainian culture
into Russian society, the band Gogol Bordello comprised of a Romani and
Ukrainian sound mixed with punk and violin sounds intends to equally spread
their brand of music into English speaking as well as Eastern European
countries. At one point in Eugene Hütz’s
career, he appeared in director Liev Schrieber’s Ukrainian set drama Everything
is Illuminated though the documentary skips over this detail focusing more
on his rise to prominence in the New York music scene.
Winner of the Tribeca Film Festival’s Best New Documentary
Award, DOC LA and 2nd place in the Lake County Film Festival’s Best
Documentary list, Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story while not
necessarily my immediate style of punk rock gypsy band collective music I
absolutely respect the uniqueness and distinct Ukrainian sound and voice fused
with New York ferocity. If nothing else,
while it functions as a rock documentary, ultimately it leans heavily into what
Eugene Hütz’s feelings are as a Ukrainian man in a world with one country
actively trying to erase another. As the
Ukraine war unfolds, soon Hütz finds himself returning to Ukraine to perform live
for soldiers and civilians, at one point visiting a makeshift bomb shelter and
getting a firsthand look at the ordeal suffered by the average Ukrainian. At one point in the doc, Hütz conducts an interview
inside the walls of an old Ukrainian church which had been serving as a bomb
shelter, giving viewers an idea of the outlook most Ukrainian refugees
have. Even as a globally successful punk
rock musical icon, it all still for him returns to that decrepit blank but
sturdy room for shelter.
Another key factor in the Ukrainian fervor and gradual distrust
in the Soviet Union which the doc gets into is the Chernobyl accident which
resulted in him being evacuated from Kyiv as a child and how that played a key
role in the Ukrainian rebellious spirit in the people of today. Mostly though, it speaks to how, upon coming
to America and settling in New York, he and several other disparate members of
the group despite cultural separations came together through their mutual love
for music. More than a few times in the
film, Hütz refers to music or the musical instrument as his weapon against
authoritarian repression and trying to spread a message of defiance against
racism or ethnic cleansing. By the end
of the film, while Hütz doesn’t reveal everything behind the stage persona he
does present a strong case for how his Ukrainian heritage and upbringing became
the driving force of energy behind his musical performances and presence.
Made in 2023 but unreleased on disc or digital platforms
until three years later with the war still ongoing, Scream of My Blood: A
Gogol Bordello Story comes to home video via MVD Visual with double-sided
sleeve art and the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the cover. Offered in both stereo and 5.1 surround, it
makes a good rock documentary about a still highly unusual form of gypsy punk
rock and the quality of the footage lensed by seven different cinematographers
with three different editors including Nate Pommer assigned to the piece mostly
looks good. There’s a little bit of
footage from 20 Days in Mariupol detailing aspects of the Ukraine
invasion but mostly the story is about how the band came to be in America with
footage of club indie shows as well as fully sold-out theatrical venues. As someone new to the band and the
personality of Eugene Hütz, it was an eye opener and while I’m still not sure
if musically Gogol Bordello is for me, this splendid little rock
documentary still left me respecting their drive and particularly the passion
of its key frontman. MVD Visual
continues to offer unique music documentaries you won’t find elsewhere and
their pairing with Vice News Films is an exciting one.
--Andrew Kotwicki
