Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno: index | article ================================================================= How to become chief anarchist Gazeta Po Kievski (Paper-Kiev, something like Daily Kiev) [1] 22 September, 2005 Russian original: http://www.pk.kiev.ua/article.php?story=2005092216011924 REPORTERS FROM THE "PAPER" VISITED THE SET OF THE 12-PART FILM "MAKHNO." Nestor Ivanovich Makhno -- one of the most enigmatic and legendary figures of the unstable revolutionary times and the period of civil war in the Ukraine. "Beat the reds until they whiten, beat the whites until they redden," -- for many years this was the way the philosophy of Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was depicted by historians, publicists, cinematographers. To this day, noone has been able to give simple answers to the questions why was the 30 yr old "bat'ka" so loved and why was he so despised by thousands of the most different people. Many contradictory legends about this man are alive even today. Every year a fair number of curious visitors wade around makhno's paths [like ho chi mihn trail] through villages and forrests of the south east of the country -- they say that in the hardest to reach/access places remains of of the "Atamanskiye" camping grounds are there till this day. Journalists of the "Paper..." visited the artistic-ethnocgraphical museum just outside Pereyaslav-Khmel'nezckiy, where a significant part of the new 12-part film "Makhno" is being filmed. ANARCHISTS ARE MADE IN CHILDHOOD In Pereyaslav the film set is located on the territory of the museum for people's architecture, which consists of a patriarchal ukranian village: crooked streets (streetlings), huts with straw roof tops, yards with uncomplicated household goods and the redolence of "cherno-brivzci." One look at the main "base" was enough to convince one -- it was exactly here that the fighters of Nestor Makhno's people's army took refuge for the time being. Wherever possible, [army style] long coats, field shirts, boots, hats, peak caps and other uncomplicated outfits were drying in the sun. "Yesterday they filmed a scene where more than 200 people enter a local lake. So now we gotta dry it all," -- explained assistant director Yuriy Khomenko. "So what's gonna happen todya?" -- I ask. "Oh, today -- the most unusual. Children!" The main director of the film, Nikolai Kaptan gives very special emphasis to Makhno's childhood: "Each of us has his "kinship" roots in childhood. Overlooking the fact that these [childhood] episodes will take up little space, only in the first episode, it is precisely here that the audience will feel how Nestor Makhno's lifelong positions and worldview are embedded. The series spans his whole life -- from 8 years old to his death in Paris. His childhood friends will travel the tragic journey along his side. Because of this, we're taking great care in working with the children. When it comes to the actual shot, I don't force them to do anything, I wait until they themselves find the solutions to this or that episode. Such is how we develop anarchist beginnings in the children" -- jokes the director. In action, however, there is no "anarchy" around here -- this is noted by everyone who works on the set. The most serious of all -- "young Makhno," 9 yr old Vladik Polikashkin. Regardless of his age, he's one of the most professional actors. This summer he starred in 3 television series. And everywhere -- in leading roles! The other kids participating in this film aren't novices either. One more Vladik (Karpenko) has already played side roles in recently shot movies "Ovod"[Gadfly], "Utyosov", "Bratsvo"[Brotherhood]. MAKHNO USED TO BE RIDICULED AS A CARICATURE Nikolai Kaptan sees the main character of his film like this: "Movies of the totalitarian era fulfilled not only a 'sozczakaz'[social orders], but also a very mighty ideological function. But for "ideologies" Makhno is a very inconvenient person. Each person injects her own understanding into the word "anarchy." Some merely try to parade around as pompous intellectuals when it comes to this subject. However, I doubt that anyone can give a divinitive all-encompassing answer on the subject of anarchism I personally see Makhno's anarchism as the "theory of minor[local] motherland." In it, the main value for a human being is the fact that he lives in his native village, his native home, he has close friends that he sees on a regular basis, and noone must order them around, tell them when to sow, to whom and what to sell. For such a huge and mighty State as the USSR, such a position was highly dangerous, therefore in the old movies they found an ideal move -- ridicule Makhno, make a characature out of his personality and with this to simplify, to level the main idea for which Makhno gave his life. But our Makhno strives to be free. Free from State, from money-drive social relations, from the [pre-industrial] natural environment... He's played by Pavel Derevyanko -- a very stylish and skilled stage [theater] actor. His television-series-film experience is thus far not great, and his face has not yet been plastered all over the comercial spaces. Yet in the near future Derevyanko will portray a compilation of 3 of Gogol's characters in Pavel Lugin's screen adatpation of "Dead Souls." Thus I'm convinved that this talented actor will be immensely popular. Filming should wrap up prior to the New Year's holiday and the premier is planned for this spring. Nonetheless, there's still lots to film. I dream of actually filming the last days of Nestor's life in Paris itself. We're filming the shooting scenes at the White Church shooting range. Kamenezc-Podpol'skiy will be portrayed as Ekaterinoslav -- today's Dnepropetrovsk and other cities, which no longer look like places did during Makhno's life." IT ALL BEGAN FROM GARDEN RAIDS Filming started around 11 o'clock. Today's episodes were meant to show that Nestor was a leader from the earliest years of his life. He organizes all of the boys' shenanigans: the raids on the Pan's [~feudal lord] gardens, the theft of apples, an expedition to kidnap the Danilovskiy Pan's rooster after he was previously beaten at the stables. The Pan's rooster was expensive, trained [prise fighter?], so Nestor decided to get his revenge -- to steal and poison the prized animal. The boys saw him as a 'firestarter' and followed in his footsteps. Inbetween scenes on the set, the adult actors whisper to enlighten us: "This story line will develop further. Young Nestor ends up in jail after him and his friends rob a postal carriage. He returns to his native lands at 21 years of age. Once again he organizes his buddies and together they begin to exact revenge on [those they vewi as] offenders. Those whom they consider traitors will be dealt with very severely: they'll kill all of them in one night. This happens during a period of absolute ungovernability in the territory of the Ukraine..." THe episodes are filmed quickly. The kids are doing a terrific job, almost without mistakes. Nikolai Kaptan is satisfied: "With adults these scenes would've taken much longer." I'd like to note that the kids have an added incentive, which is to eat more apples during the repetition of one of the scenes, after the raid on the Pan's garden. However, they're being carefully watches by their parents, quietly lurking on the edges of the set. During breaks they fix up their kids' "bryli" [peasant hats] which keep sliding off to the side a bit and restrap their "onuchi" [peasant shoes, probably made of light/flexible tree bark and some sort of cloth] which keep coming lose during the scene where they run away from a stranger's garden. "Actually, during the times of Makhno's childhood kids used to run around barefoot..." -- I hear someone say and immediately address the question to the director. "Oh let it go, we decided to just film it this way," says Yuriy Petrovich. The junior-actors are serious and efficient. I approach Vladik Polikashkin. Journalist(J): Do you like Nestor? VP: Yes. He's brave and just. And he has a solid character -- my grandma used to tell me. J: So how is this film different from other ones you've done? VP: Everthing here is very strict. And Makhno himself is very strict. Before I only played someone else's sons, but here I have decide everything for myself. J: Well, do you like giving orders? "Being a a leader is difficult," sighs the boy Around the same spot, on the set we meet with the mother of 2 brothers Pazych -- Vladislav (9 yrs old) and Igor (14 yrs old). Lena, the mother, tells us that the older one, who plays Makhno's older brother Grigoriy (Gregory), is seriously interested in the history of the Ukraine. He recently wrote a film script called "Zaporozhskaya Sech"[2]. So far he's only shown his work to family. After a conversation with Igor, I personally think that his 40-page script, based on historical material, with 5 battle scenes, should catch the attention of grown-up experts. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with the main lady of the film -- Nestor Makhno's mother, played by Ada Rogovzceva. She wasn't on the set on this day; neither was the "mature" Nestor, Pavel Derevyanko. However, we did get to hang out with little Julia, the one who plays the only girl, Nastya, in the group of village kids. In the film she's got a responsible task -- to create the likeness of a girl, who's to occupy a very important place in the heart of the main character... 1. a play on word, using the name of an eastern european chickecn cutlet called 'Katleta Po Kievski' or Chicken Kiev in the English 2. a) a central geographical area (southern Ukrainian steppe) considered to be the home of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. the Cossacks were a pseudo/para-military, reasonably self-contained and self-governed nomadic community. One might call them Slavic nomads, very loosely similar to Central Asian and Mongolian nomads. Russian Wikipedia: http://ru.wikipedia.org English Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporozhian_Sech>