SHEVCHENKO: It's Not That I'm of God Complaining

crew

director • producer • DOP • editor - Ivantiy Novak

cast

Viktoria Mushtey

the project

A short film based on Taras Shevchenko’s poem It’s Not That I’m of God Complaining. This was a piece built around the idea of dreams and the way they penetrate into our reality. Working with Viktoria Mushtey, we discussed at great length the relationship between lies and hope, truth and despair, and the idea of a ‘siren song’ as described by Homer. 

I approached the work principally through the concept of a veil: a divide needed to be created between the world of the real and the dream; between conscious and unconscious; between the material and the transcendental. I was interested in the idea of ‘earth’ in Shevchenko’s original text as something that has started to turn fluid; whether through changing borders, shelled terrain, blood-soaked ground, or emigration; the way this intertwines with the concept of ‘post-truth,’ and the role mist plays in sirens’ seduction as described in Homer’s Odyssey. 

I stripped the set and the lighting, relying on a single source and used a voile panel to create hazy texture. Viktoria’s hand was used to bridge the divide between the ‘two worlds,’ simultaneously acting as the listener to Shevchenko’s words. We rehearsed the text using Cis Berry’s and John Barton’s approach to Shakespeare, and I subverted the idea of the siren by working with the image of Mary Magdalene, as described by Boris Pasternak.