Ukrainian Literature as an Endless Source of Material for Film Adaptation

It is undisputable, that creation of screen adaptations and television versions of famous (and not) literary works is a very prominent international trend of recent decades. At the same time the works of Ukrainian authors – both classic and modern – until recently attracted little interest from filmmakers and TV producers. This information was presented by the Ukrainian literary scholar and critic Tatiana Trofimenko in her report “Cinematic Literature” at the international conference “Film Business”, held at the media forum KYIV MEDIA WEEK.

However, the situation is changing for the better, at least in recent years – the Ukrainian viewers saw a range of films based on literary works by Ukrainian authors. For example, “Song of Songs”, “Flight of the Golden Fly”, “Ivan Syla”, “Brothers. The Last Confession”, “Viy”, and others.

Tatiana has many potential adaptations in mind – such as “Cap and the Whale” by Kateryna Babkina, “The Invisible Front Fighters” by Vladislav Ilchenko, “Cruel Sky” by Max Kidruk, “Pharmacist” by Yuriy Vynnychuk, “Oblivion” by Tania Maliarchuk, “Chronos” by Taras Antipovich, “Good and Evil” by Irena Karpa, and others. At the same time, the expert stresses that there are a whole lot of books by modern Ukrainian writers that can make good film adaptations.

Marketing and PR Director at FILM.UA Group Polina Tolmacheva, in turn, talked about current FILM.UA projects that are based on literary works. For example, a young adult fantasy film “Outpost” based on the book by Vladimir Rutkowskiy. Among new projects that just today received confirmation of funding from the State Committee for Cinematography, and are based on literary works, is an animated film “Mavka” based on the drama by Lesia Ukrainka “Lisova Pisnya”. “In addition, there is a project of an 8-episode detective series with elements of mysticism “Lemberg”, which is inspired by modern Ukrainian literature. We are also developing a draft of a script based on Ivan Franko’s “Zakhar Berkut”. And our company “Kinorob” is working on the film “Airport”, based on the eponymous novel by Sergei Loiko”, says Tolmacheva.

A renowned Ukrainian author and screenwriter Andrii Kokotiukha expressed his attitude to screen adaptations. Many of his own works have been translated to the screen (the latest being “Red”, a film based on Kokotiukha’s novel, which is currently in post-production). “If the author does not plan to turn the book into a film, they should not even bother writing it”, said Andrii, noting that all of his works were originally designed for commercial cinema, not independent.