Cinema Independence 2. Men-actors of Ukrainian cinema, who impress you

Maybe 5 years ago, my friends and I talked about Ukrainian cinema and lamented that there are no Till Schweiger, or Brad Pitt, or at least Tom Cruise in it. And now I look at the men in the new Ukrainian cinema and my eyes can’t focus – why do we need Til Schweiger? Here is Roman Lutsky! And when you look at Vyacheslav Dovzhenko, you cannot even remember Pitt. Eh, girls, there are some men to watch in the Ukrainian cinema, and the heart is singing when it sees them. So this is an absolutely subjective list of my personal preferences. These are actors, who make my heart beat differently, my favorites.

And this list is not complete, it does not include a lot of extremely talented actors, whom you can add yourself here in the comments!

Stanislav Boklan

This actor is out of time and any dimension. He’s an actor, who can speak with his eyes, and sometimes you enlarge the image to see what is in those eyes, what he will say other than words by role. And even in the blind eyes of his character in the film “The Guide” there are all the truths of the world. Oh yeah, the unbearably painful film “The Guide” makes me now look into each of his roles, in every film with him and find there something special for myself. In 2017, the film “The Line” was released, there Mr. Stanislav played the Ukrainian mafia and played this role very well.

Vyacheslav Dovzhenko

When I recorded “KinoKurilka” with him, I was worried the most. After all, he is the same Serpen from “The Cyborgs”.

This is undoubtedly a hero in the new Ukrainian cinema. And the fact that he does not get stuck in one role pleases – he is different, somewhat helpless, naive and a little ridiculous in “The Swingers”, but real. Even where he plays some bastards in the series, you believe and hate him with the same strength as you believe and love in “The Cyborgs”. And when they announced the nominees of “Zolota Dzyga” for the best leading role, I was sure it would be Dovzhenko.

Roman Lutsky

It was after the role of Oleshko in the film “The Stronghold” that I realized that it was not necessary to look for Brad Pitt or Til Schweiger in the Ukrainian cinema. And why do we need them, if here we have beautiful, sexy, romantic and incredible Roman Lutsky. Although, it would seem, “The Stronghold” is the film for children, where does sexuality come from?! But Roman still inspired to reflect on the fact that it would be worthy to film and the adult line of Oleshko. I’m looking forward to the film “Sex and nothing personal”, where Roman Lutsky should be in the adult role… very adult.

Maksym Samchyk

While the whole world is fanatical for the young Timothee Chalamet, I interviewed the Kyiv teenagers, showing them a photo of Maksym Samchyk. And you know, Samchyk won in all the cases. The teenagers rolled their eyes and shyly said, “Ooooh, what a handsome one!” It seems – this is the same actor, posters with which your daughters will hang in their rooms. In the film “When The Trees Fall” Samchyk plays the Scar, a character, for whom we were ready to go against everything in our youth. You fall in love with him and he fascinates at first sight.

In the film “Foxter and Max” Samchyk played the leading part. Both films with Maksym Samchyk coming out in the autumn. Don’t miss the premiere and the new characters in them.

Yakiv Tkachenko

This is that scary and silent Slavik from the film “The Strayed”. The one that was looking for his “Madonna” at a rural bus-stop, then the one, who crashed the car of Yurii and Yurii himself as well. The critics were nitpicking to his character the most and it is for him that I screamed more that he is real. After all, in the village, where I come so often, such “Slavik” with exactly the same story lives in the next courtyard. Yakiv does not seem to have played that Slavik, but lived that role from the beginning to the end. And he certainly became my personal discovery in the cinema this year.

Yakiv is approved for one of the roles in the film by Garrett Johnson. It is about a Welsh journalist, in 1933, who went to the Soviet Union, saw here a real Ukraine and the Holodomor and passes this story to the world. I will wait for this film for the sake of the plot and for the sake of the role of Yakiv Tkachenko in this movie.

Dmytro Rybalevsky

I love him primarily as an actor in the theater, but here, in this film list, he fell for his adherence to principles. After all, Dmytro refused to play all sorts of cops, bandits, and idiots even before it became mainstream. In 2019 on the big screens there should come out the film of Mykhailo Illienko “Toloka”, Dmytro has played the main role in it – Vasyl. And I saw a photo of that Vasyl. Ah, what a Vasyl… You know, the ground burns under such Vasyls. And for some reason, I am sure that Dmytro in this role will be as honest as in life.

Andrii Isayenko

Films lovers usually recognize Andrii Isayenko from the series, but when one sees his Subota in “The Cyborgs”, one cannot take her eyes off. Yes, this is the character of Andrii Isayenko – “Subota” took the war as a work that must be done honestly and qualitatively, so he constantly quarreled with his wife and so he was great in the episode, where around him is war, and the cat Tanya is giving birth to kittens. So the first thing after watching “The Cyborgs”, I went to google who this “Subota” is. This year Andrii is doing the film “Zakhar Berkut” in the beautiful company of Ukrainian and Hollywood stars.

Oleg Stefanov (Oleg Stefan)

He impressively played the warrior of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the film “Chervonyy” and, although the film itself caused a lot of questions to its creators, this does not concerns Oleg Stefanov’s actingthe, his character seemed right and honest. This year the film-prehistory of “Chervonyy” is filming, that is, the story of Danylo Chervonyy before he got to the camp. And I’m very glad that we will see him also in the film “Zakhar Berkut”. It seems that Ahtem Seitablayev gathered all the stars of Ukrainian cinema – those, who are already known for the viewer, and those, who are still unknown.

Oleg Voloshchenko

Oleg is the handsome protagonist Illya Muromets from the movie “The Stronghold”. Strength and beauty. All three heroes are certainly handsome, but Oleg needs a separate word. I would like to see him every movie season, as a new Ukrainian superhero from history is born – powerful, strong, kind and handsome. It seems his film career began precisely with “The Stronghold”, at least about his roles in the movies of previous years, I did not find anything. But the audience and filmmakers still like Oleg. Already in 2018, there will be the film with Oleg Voloshchenko – “Callsign Banderas” and Israeli horror – “The Golem”. Oleg also starred in the film “Taras. Return”, they probably will show it to the mass audience soon, but when it’s not yet known. Later, Oleg will be seen in the film “Zakhar Berkut”, yes-yes, the very same where the former “Terminator” is acting, where the director is Ahtem Seitablayev and where all my favorite actors seem to be gathered.

Ahtem Seitablayev

Yes, I am not mistaken, Ahtem Seitablayev in the actor’s list. In addition to being a good director, he is also an actor, a very good actor. He with his films “Hayitarama” and “Another’s prayer” (in which he was both a director and one of the actors) opens the history of the Crimean Tatar people, of which we know so little. And you even want to watch series for the sake of his characters. Now Ahtem is not an actor, after the director’s work on the film “The Cyborgs” he took up a great work on “Zakhar Berkut”. And I still quietly hope that I will see him there, at least in a small episodic role. Because he is interesting, because he is good because he is real.

Tatusya Bo