Pedagogía crítica y teoría crítica

The theme of ancient Rus' is not well represented in Ukrainian cinema or memory politics in the first decade after 1991. In many ways it is a result of the long stagnation of Ukrainian cinema, but also because there was no need for Ukrainians to prove a seemingly self-evident fact: Kievan Rus' is Ukrainian history. It is only in recent years that the historical period begins to appear in Ukrainian cinema. Iurii Kovaliov, for instance, in his historical fantasy, The Stronghold (2017), creates a Kievan Rus' that is particularly Ukrainian. Even the traditional Russian (russkie) byliny heroes Alesha Popovich, Ilia Muromets, and Dobrynia Nikitich acquire names in Ukrainian manner—Oleshko, Il'ko, and Dobrynia. The Ukrainian film industry has considerably changed after 2014, when Filipp Ilienko became the head of Ukrainian State Film Agency. While previously Ukraine served as a service area for Russian film industry, providing its actors, film

studios and locations for Russian cinema, after 2014 the politics has changed towards the production of patriotic domestic films. According to F. Ilienko,

Patriotic film is any film that creates Ukrainian cultural context, regardless of the topic of the film, its plot line or genre. It can be a historical drama about a hetman or an entertaining comedy about the modern times. It is the Ukrainian cultural context that shapes Ukrainian national identity and fosters self-identification of Ukrainians. Most people think that a patriotic film is necessarily a historical film, about a historical event or figure. Clearly, such film will be patriotic, but patriotism is not limited to this only. Film is not supposed to replace a textbook or any other scholarly research, film is creation of mythology. Film is not science. It does not appeal to rationality; it appeals to people’s emotions.” (Linnyk)

The Stronghold is not a historical film but a fantasy, a fairy tale; this is why its contemporary flare is artistically motivated. The Ukrainian national ideology that has developed over the previous two decades of independence is a firm background for the film. The mere fact that the film is in Ukrainian and all the heroes, including the Polans and the ancient Rus people, speak Ukrainian is a compelling setting. In the film, an ordinary Ukrainian boy, Vit'’ko, goes to the Carpathians to see a solar eclipse that opens a time portal into the past and the hero is taken one thousand years ago. There he has a number of adventures, a friendship with Oleshko (the Ukrainian original of the figure of Alesha Popovich), and overcomes his fear of heights before he returns home. This is a fully Ukrainian film sponsored by Ukrainian State Agency of Cinema, made by Ukrainian directors, with Ukrainian actors, and a Ukrainian audience may easily recognize the current Ukrainian reality under the fantasy disguise. The decorations of Kievan Rus'

are used to build a string of attachment of present-day Ukraine to its distant past, in compliance with the current Ukrainian ideology, as well as in opposition to the Russian memory policy.

With no pretensions to historical authenticity, The Stronghold creates a reality of Kievan Rus' that is colorful and understandable for present-day audiences. The costumes and home interiors are decorated with traditional Ukrainian embroidery in red and black, which unequivocally sets the Ukrainian tone to the historical period. Hospitality and lavish meals on a nicely set table (completely out of historical context) are also indirect references to the traditional Ukrainian traits. The humorous nature of Oleshko is a representation of one of the conventional images of the Ukrainian warrior that came about much later and is usually associated with the image of a Cossack—outgoing, lively, with a good sense of humor, a bit clumsy and stupid, yet courageous. One of the major scenes in the film, in this respect, occurs when Oleshko refuses to be called in the Russian manner, Alesha, insisting that he is Oleshko: “Alesha-kalesha, maybe you are Alesha. I am Popovich, kalesha (a galosh) is not mine.” It is offensive for the legendary hero to be called in the Russian manner. A contemporary Ukrainian writer, Andrii Kokotiukha, points out that among the main achievements of the film is the fact that it “brings Ukrainian folk heroes once annexed by Russia back to Ukraine” (Kokotiukha). Whether this Ukrainization of ancient Russian heroes is legitimate is a question of ideology, yet an attempt of appropriation of a shared legacy by Ukrainians is evident.

When Vit'ko and his new girlfriend go to Leleche (a “stork dwelling place” in Ukrainian), the Kumans suddenly attack the village that is known for its positive people who never feel angry or envious and are like children. When the entire village is in flames, a powerful scene with a burning cradle invites associations with the conventional metaphor of Kievan Rus as the common

cradle of all Slavs.11 The Kumans, in the meantime, are a cinematic representation of the generalized enemy of Ukraine’s freedom and peace. Dressed in grey and black colors, with faces completely covered, they are typical representatives of the dark forces. In the circumstances of Russo-Ukrainian antagonism, they also imply Russian hostility. When the three legendary heroes—Oleshko, Il'ko, and Dobrynia—rush to save Leleche, they are framed by the camera, as if Vasnetsov’s famous painting Bogatyri (1898) came alive. When they stop, Dobrynia takes off his helmet without heeding to Il'ko’s warning about the danger, since the enemy’s arrow may reach him any time: “If I get an arrow in my forehead, I am destined to get one.” The phrase’s allusion might be lost to foreign audiences, yet every Ukrainian would immediately recognize the words of Arsenii Iatseniuk, former Prime Minister of Ukraine, who, during the Euromaidan revolution in 2013-14, incited people to withstand the pro-Russian forces with a similar phrase “We will go forward tomorrow: if we get a bullet in the forehead, this is your destiny to get one. But it will be honest, fair, and courageous” (“Iakshcho kulia v lob, to kulia v lob”).

When the Kumans attack Rymiv, a Rusian village, with a powerful army accompanied by a huge stone monster, the powers seem unequal with no chance for Rusians to win. The fight between Oleshko and the stone monster, Golem, reads as a metaphor for the military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. In spite of the size of the monster, Oleshko manages to win the battle by ruse, taking Golem to the river and making him fall. As in a good fairy tale, Oleshko survives the confrontation, symbolizing the power of Ukrainians to withstand the enemy, however monstrous it might be. As the Kuman troops attack the Rusian village, Il'ia Muromets declares: “Brothers, truth is with us! Might is with us! God is with us! We are in our land! We will

withstand!” The reference is perceived by Ukrainian audiences as an unequivocal call for cohesion and resistance against the Russian aggression and raises the spirit of the nation in the times of conflict and undeclared war. When the stone monster Golem finally crumbles into pieces, the Rusians obtain freedom and peace and return to way of life they had always had. The good naturally beats evil in a fairy tale; the Kievan heroes beat the Kumans, also a desirable outcome for the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The suggestion of the film’s metaphor inspires and encourages Ukrainian audiences. The Stronghold, therefore, creates a purely Ukrainian world of Kievan Rus', appropriating the ancient Slavic history, and making the Rus people speak Ukrainian, dress Ukrainian, and protect their land from foreign invasion, much like their ancestors.