THE PROBLEMS OF OLGA PASKO'S DOCUMENTARY "PEACEFUL LIFE UNDER THE RUMBLING SKY"

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this article is to describe the problems of the documentary film “Peaceful Life under the Rumbling Sky” by O.A. Pasko, to consider its compositional features. During the study, the method of structural analysis, the philosophical method, and an integrated approach were used. Documents and eyewitness accounts are what fill the composition, creating a plot, leaving no place for fiction, speculation, or distortion of historical facts. The conclusions note that the film belongs to the genre of “conversation”. The work is conventionally divided into several thematic sections. Each part is a separate story, as a result of which a mosaic of life-affirming history of unbroken and heroic people is formed.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Цель данной статьи – описать проблематику документального фильма «Мирная жизнь под грохочущим небом» О.А. Пасько, рассмотреть его композиционные особенности. В ходе исследования применен метод структурного анализа, философский метод, использован комплексный подход. Документы и свидетельства очевидцев – это то, что наполняет собой композицию, создавая сюжет, не оставляя места вымыслу, домыслам, искажению исторических фактов. В выводах отмечено, что кинолента относится к жанру беседы. Условно работа разделена на несколько тематических разделов. Каждая часть представляет собой отдельную историю, в результате из них складывается мозаика жизнеутверждающего повествования несломленных и героических людей.

Keywords: documentary film, peaceful life under a rumbling sky, Olga Pasko, war, Donbas.

Ключевые слова: документальное кино, мирная жизнь под грохочущим небом, Ольга Пасько, война, Донбасс.

Introduction

Modern Russian documentary cinema has long attracted the attention of many scientists and art historians around the world, which is clearly emphasised in the work of E. B. Futerman: “Interest in Russian documentary films is growing in the West as well. Its main buyer is the US Library of Congress. In every self-respecting country, documentary films are supported by the state at the highest level. Understanding that it is precisely through film and television newsreels that national and world history is written today, no one expects to make a profit from documentary filmmaking, just as no one expects profits from the Hermitage and Versailles. The only exceptions in world film practice are political propaganda like Michael Moore’s topical anti-Bush pamphlets, which receive major awards in Cannes, and spectacular popular science films in the format of the Discovery and National Geographic channels” [1, p. 52]. The author of this article fully shares this point of view, as she concludes, based on her research [2–6; 8], that documentary films are of absolute significance in the context of an objective presentation of historical events.

E.B. Futerman's statement is best illustrated by the award for best film at the Second Russian-American International Film Festival “Bridges” 2022, which was given to Olga Pasko's film “Peaceful Life Under the Rumbling Sky”, created in 2021 and updated in 2022.

The following victories should be listed below:

• 2022 Winner's Diploma at the “Maikop International Film Festival”;

• 2022 Winner's Diploma at the Sochi Film Festival;

• 2021 Letter of thanks from the Public Chamber of the DPR, Screening as part of a creative meeting of the International Festival “Stars over Donbas” (Donetsk);

• 2023 Golden statuette of the winner and diploma in Patriotic film festival “Under the Clear Sky” (Belgorod).

The purpose of this article is to describe the problems and features of the documentary film by O. Pasko, “Peaceful Life under the Rumbling Sky” (2022).

Research methodology

During the study, the method of structural analysis, the philosophical method, and an integrated approach were used. The experimental part of the research contribution of the author of the article can be considered the work on subtitles in a foreign language.

Results and discussion

The article “Features of Olga Pasko’s Documentaries” [7] is dedicated to the work of the famous Russian scientist Olga Anatolyevna Pasko, who made a huge contribution to world science in the field of agriculture. This study will focus on a film created in 2021–2022, dedicated to modern events and revealing life during the war of our days and our people in all objectivity.

The work is conventionally divided into several thematic sections:

I. No Light in Sight.

II. How It All Began.

III. A Shot into Childhood.

IV. Fiery Roses.

V. We Can Do Anything, and Not Just in Fashion.

VI. A Corner of Peace and Beauty.

VII. Let’s Live.

Each part is a separate story, as a result of which a mosaic of a life-affirming story of unbroken and heroic people is formed. This film depicts the truth as told by eyewitnesses, people who are at the epicentre of historical events, whose emotions cannot be “acted out”. For example, poetess Anna Revyakina says the following: “It was explained to me many times what was the difference between the Crimean referendum and the Donbas one, but something inside me didn’t find a response for these words. Because both of them were very sincere, and about the truth. I haven’t seen any difference between them. But I see differences in fate. There was a referendum when people came to vote on two sticks: there were grandfathers. We sent people home, but they said: “We want it ourselves!” Here, of course, I had tears in my eyes. I have never seen such enthusiasm in my life. This is exactly what happened in this Russian spring. We were so happy! We shouted so: Russia, we are with you!” [9].

People have been waiting since 2014 for some improvements, waiting for Russia, for joining Russia. The 2014-th year began with this idea, when hostilities began, when the army, aviation, everything was lowered on them.

They lived in hope – right now. But it was already the eighth year! People were already tired of hoping for something. They lived in order to live until tomorrow, and what would happen the next day was already unknown.

The heroine of the film says: “That was a pity for the children who have been born BEFORE the start of the war. They grew up during the war. There was a lot of incomprehensible for them – why couldn't they do what they wanted? Why couldn't they go where they wanted? How could they be?” [9].

Anna Revyakina is 38 years old she was only 30 when the war began. She lived these 8 years in the expectation that something would be different, that the war would end, that there would be some kind of recognition.

Of course, she painted her lips and dressed up, and even her daughter was born, and but still inside there was a feeling that life was on pause. And, she was sad and hurt by the fact. According to Minsk agreements, Donbas is a part of Ukraine. And the heroes of the film imagine life with Ukraine now. They don't know how they can live in the same house with the murderers of the own children...

The author of the film makes a historical digression: how it all began.

The land here is a wild field. They were sparsely populated for two reasons: on the one hand, the Tatars constantly swooped in, and on the other, there was always a lack of water.

Donbas began with people who relied on themselves. Donbas began with people who abandoned everything and abruptly changed their fate. People came here who wanted to drastically change their lives and the lives of their loved ones and relatives. Therefore, they were always responsible people.

Greeks, Serbs, Tatars. The mines were opened after Peter I and runaway serfs from all the Russian regions went here. A conglomerate has formed. After the war, when Donbas had being restored, many Belarusians came, many Siberians.

Viewers will learn from the characters' stories that there are miners and metallurgists here. These are fearless people. “The miners, descending into the mine, risk their lives every time. Metallurgists, going to the plant, know how hard their work is, but they all understand that it is for someone and for what − for a good life. These are always hardworking and purposeful people − they are WE these Donbas inhabitants. The events that are taking place now have shown that we are also proud. How was the Russian Empire different from others?! It united, without altering, without remelting. Georgia was joined and the Georgians remained themselves, and nothing − they served Russia! They became heroes − Bagration was the same! Armenians − they were saved by Russia” [9].

“I like Ukrainian songs. They are melodic. They are beautiful! But I love French gomen and Russian songs. I love Tyrolean yodels. My father is German, and my mother is Russian, my wife is half Ukrainian, half Belarusian. There is something incomprehensibly Greek in the mother-in-law” [9] – said one of the heroes.

People say that after 2014, even their relatives in Ukraine began to feel ashamed of them or treat them with hostility. From the film documents it’s known that in 1939−1954 years the territories of Hungary, Poland, Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia were joined to Ukraine. Earlier, the Russian cities of Yuzovka (Donetsk), Lugansk, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk, Dnipro) and Elisavetgrad (Kirovograd, Kropyvnytsky) were transferred to it.

Even the fate of the zoo animals, as told by its director, Saveliy Vishura, is touching. “Predators live in aviaries underground, bears live in a den. We didn't know what war was yet; we just built it like that. From above, everything was concreted, reinforced, covered with a decorative stone. They are so more or less calm. And other large animals… Five of our camels were killed, two were just children... The most tragic thing is that one child fell on his mother. She lived for another ten days… When I came, she was just crying...” [9].

Alexandra Nikolaeva, scientific work Deputy Director of the Donetsk Botanical Garden considers that God was protecting them and no one died. “It was at night. Although there was severe destruction, all the windows flew out, but everyone remained alive. And the second time it was also at night. February, closer to the morning when there was a terrible frost on the street, it all happened in the greenhouse – 40 % of the dome polycarbonate was broken. And we arrived here in the morning. And everything was covered. We found climbers who blocked everything in one day, we found a covering material, we put all our strength, but we saved the entire collection fund” [9].

Professor Vladimir Ostapko shows a unique herbarium, a huge and valuable collection. “This is our herbarium − more than 136 thousand herbarium specimens. All the plants that I collected in the herbarium, I remember each one – where I dug it up. The question of leaving – not leaving, neither I nor my wife, colleagues, did not arise. Every day we hear the cannonade. It's rattling, and it can fly here every minute. Before this operation began, the tables were littered with herbarium sheets. But, since they are in front of the windows, we put everything on the shelves, in the cabinets, stuffed, and hid. Because there is a danger that the glass will shatter in an explosion, the herbarium may be damaged. Our colleague came today, he said, when there was a slight lull, they were told: “In this house you have to be, spend the night” [9]. “And there was a beautiful garden. I see that the trees are poorly trimmed, I went to the garage, took tools, and put everything in order. They ask me, what are you doing, and even at night?! And he answers – I do what I love. Now he is wounded, in the hospital, we hope that everything will be without consequences” [9].

None of the employees of the greenhouse complex left. Everyone stayed in their places, and despite the fact that the city was bombed, there was a big panic, people did not understand what was going on at all, we were coming here. They were driving; they knew that needed to water. Everything was spinning there, planes were flying, the greenhouse complex was shaking, but everyone was at their workplaces, watering. The collection fund that they have collected, how much soul they have invested in it over these 40 years, it could not just die like that!

Conclusion

Based on the genre classification of cinema [10, p. 12], the author of this article can say that the film “Peaceful Life Under the Rumbling Sky” by O.A. Pasko belongs to the genre of “conversation”, that is, the genre of analytical journalism, a polylogue using auxiliary film and photo documents without an expressed confrontation of the parties, dedicated to a specific and significant topic with the participation of people, whose very appearance on the screen is capable of attracting an audience. This conditional division, however, is capable of defining the genre feature of the film discussed in the article. The author of the film compositionally positions the frames very competently. For example, the soundtrack expressed by the poem of Anna Revyakina is accompanied by a visual sequence of children's drawings depicting military operations. Thus, the emotional impact on the viewer is enhanced. This must be done, since not everyone understands the pain of those people who live in a combat zone. It is difficult to understand the moral pain of another when a person does not know what this pain is. With the help of poetry, drawings, and cinema art, it is still possible to reach the depths of the souls of those living in a consumer society, as proven by the victories of this film at international film festivals, and this is precisely the mission of the author of the film: to reach the souls that condemn Donbas.

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