Art Amidst Adversity: A Journey from Ukraine to Venice

In this episode, host Tara Jabbari speaks with Zhanna Ozirna, a Ukrainian filmmaker whose first feature film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. They talk about the inspiration behind her film, the importance of art showcasing challenges like war, winning the Biennale Cinema Competition, plus much more.

The film, Honeymoon (English title) is about a couple, Taras and Olya, who just bought an apartment in the suburbs and are spending their first night there before they are woken up by explosions outside the window. A full-scale invasion has begun and the couple is trapped without electricity, water, and mobile communication. During the coming days, Taras and Olya face a new level of intimacy during a deadly threat.

Her film sites:
https://www.instagram.com/medovyi_misiats/
https://www.facebook.com/filmhoneymoon
https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2024/biennale-college-cinema/medovyi-misiats-honeymoon
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31039377/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_cred_t_1

---
Subscribe to learn more about filmmaking, production, media makers, creator resources, visual storytelling, and every aspect that brings film, television, and video projects from concepts to our screens. Check out the MediaMakerSpotlight.com show page to find even more conversations with industry professionals that inspire, educate, and entertain!

We on the Women in Film & Video (WIFV) Podcast Team work hard to make this show a great resource for our listeners, and we thank you for listening!

Transcript

00:01 - VO (Host)
Quiet on the set. All together Action. Welcome to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video in Washington DC. We bring you conversations with industry professionals for behind-the-screens insight and inspiration insight and inspiration. 

00:25 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Jana Orzyrna, a Ukrainian filmmaker, actually speaking us from Ukraine right now. Her first feature film the English-speaking title is called Honeymoon, premiered at the 81st Denis Film Festival, and that's actually where we met. It's about a newlywed couple who move into their apartment in a town in Ukraine and one morning they wake up to massive explosions and learn that Russia has attacked Ukraine. For the next week the couple stay in their apartment with no electricity or water and face crucial existential questions under mortal danger. Jana, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you for inviting me. So first, what inspired this specific story to tell Honeymoon? 

01:15 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
Yeah, this story actually is the story of the friend, of my friend. I actually first I read it in the news right after the occupation of the Kyiv region. It happened in early April 2022, the first year of the war and I came back home to my native village, which is actually in the Kyiv region, very close to the line of occupation, and I read a lot of news, I read a lot of stories about I don't know my neighbors, like people who are living very close to me, and it was one of the articles that really stuck in my head. I would say like that, because these people, they were living in a kind of an apartment on the second floor with a window into the inner yard, so they could see that in the inner yard they could see Russians and Russians actually could see them. So they are hiding, pretending there is nobody there in the apartment and they are kind of crawling on their force all seven days during this period of hiding. So it's just like this image stuck in my head because it's hard to imagine, it's hard to believe in, especially in the kind of modern times that you are it could happen in such situations. 

02:57
So, yeah, and then I found this guy who was a hero of the story and originally it was about the family. It was the family of the story and originally it was about the family. It was the family of seven members. Also they had a cat, they had even a small rabbit, so it was just like the whole family. We talked twice. I visited his apartment to understand the location, how it was looking like, and then it was also accidentally I, I just researched this topic, this uh, um, all the stories, and found another story which is very similar to this one, but it was the family of three mother, father and daughter. 

03:45
And I talked to the daughter and she's a very clever woman. She's actually a model of Vogue and she has a PhD in culturology, so she's a really bright woman and she also was in this situation very, very similar, also somehow on the second floor, also like hiding for, uh, some days. So I just kind of mixed these two stories and also added I, I, I reduced a little bit this story to the couple, uh, made this apartment kind of a very new apartment, so we don't have any furniture or something like that. So to play with all of this, to have the possibility to play with it, and obviously I put something from my war experience and first days of the war it was really well done because it's only it's less than 90 minutes. 

04:54 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
But when we left the theater we were like that was only 90 minutes. That felt so much longer in a in a weirdly good way, because we we felt like you're stuck in the apartment, you don't leave the apartment because they don't leave the apartment and yeah, they have these conversations. They're crawling on the floor and it's a master class and master film of sound. You only hear, you don't see anything. You see their reactions, you don't see the explosions. You hear the explosions, you hear any gunshots, but you don't see anyone die, that kind of thing. So we were always like, and when I was reading, I'm like that was a week. They were there for a week. So I was like I'm going to talk to her about that. And so when you heard about that, was that based off of these real stories that for the most part, it took about a week for them until they figured out what to do, or was that just another reason? Why did it take about a week for you to tell the story? Like, keep it there? 

06:12 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
it was like an original story, but in my film it was five days like a day. We call it day zero, kind of the evening before the war and five days after the war started. The reason was actually in the storyline itself, because I wanted to explore different things each day and to make this degree of intensity high every day and each day is happening differently. I know that you cannot really distinguish during the film, but it's okay, because I did it in the script. So in the script everything is very well settled so you can have this feeling that everything is going on smoothly but the intensity is going up. For example, first they of confused. They just don't know what to do. Different people are calling asking you something. You just don't know where to go, what to do, how to hide, etc. So the second day when Russians come, they are kind of also confused, but it's kind of plus, it's big fear and also they start to crawl. So it's different physical appearance of the characters. 

07:55
The third, the middle part of the film, is more about because they are cut off from any information outside. They don't have electricity, mobile connections, so they cannot read the news. I did it to have the possibility to concentrate on their own relationship among them and also to have this development of each line. So she has these doubts about because she is an artist, and she has these doubts that probably her um activity before the full-scale invasion is useless right now. And he has this issue with his russian father. Yes, and they have like common, some common issue about I don't know future children and etc. And then, like step by step, like next day they hear some very scary sounds and like I don't know to spoil, but yes, some I don't know shooting and yeah, they, they hear also how their neighbor was killed. So I mean, like it was just like the. Each day I had one turning point, yeah, and I tried to develop everything, all the storyline, around this turning point. So just, like that. 

09:25 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
What I also appreciated about it is, I think, a lot of people all over the world unfortunately many countries and many people can unfortunately relate to it. My family comes from Iran and they went through the Iranian revolution and Iran's not doing well right now, and so when I was watching it I could sort of sense that going on and other people going through so many different countries are going through it. So you didn't have to be Ukrainian. We did have a few people, viewers who are from Ukraine. They were tearing up the whole film because it's so close. But you just knew I mean, so many people can relate to this. 

10:20
Like there's that first part where they're like I don't want to leave my home, this is my home. And then, as the time progresses, they're like, well, should we leave? But can we leave now? Is it safe to leave? And as they were like, well, then they hear something and their neighbors, and then they hear gunshots and like, OK, maybe it's not safe to leave right now, and then, but then what do you do? And then you just start talking and the talking could turn into arguments and all sorts. 

10:50
It was so relatable because you're just human and what do you do? It was so well done. And what do you do? It was so well done and the acting is so well because it really had to go with these two actors that's all we really see through 99% of the film and they did such a good job and we briefly spoke during the film festival, but you kind of shared that sometimes they didn't get along necessarily and that you found ways to use their competitiveness to get that chemistry. That would be like a husband and a wife newlyweds, not as actors who are like, oh, you're annoying me so much, right? So could you kind of share a little bit more of that and as kind of advice for directors, for future directors, on like how do you kind of for lack of a better word manipulate the situation so you can get the kind of chemistry and relationship you want to be portrayed on screen? Does that make sense? 

12:01 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
yeah, yeah, sure, sure it makes sense. Yeah, first of all, I want to uh share this experience of casting itself, because right now in ukraine it's pretty hard to be honest because, like a lot of male actors at the front line and many female actors, they actually went abroad. So the casting was really really hard from that point, and from another point, it was also very important to find kind of pretty equal actors. You know, very important to find kind of pretty equal actors, you know, because Roman the actor he is pretty famous in Ukraine, he did a couple of really big roles before and he is very confident about himself and it was pretty hard to find the actress, so she will be kind of on the same level with him. I'm not talking even about the talent, but like about the energy and confidence as well. 

13:16
When I found Ira, she was working usually as an actor's coach before. She was working usually as an actor's coach before and this is her like well, it's her first big role, I mean. But when I saw them together it was very just interesting to watch them how they behave. They are both professionals and ambitious people and it's a very interesting combination and sometimes when we started the rehearsal, they offered me some things on the script, like how to change the scene, how to change the behavior, and sometimes I felt that they see their characters a little bit different, kind of more close that they are to their own human nature, and it's, I think, like, um, I'm, this is my first film, so I was really afraid, to be honest, to make some mistakes because of the lack of experience, and my first decision, like before the shooting, was like to believe, to trust my own intuition, because the team around me, like most people, are kind of more experienced than me. But this is my film and, let's say, I'm the only person who knows how this film should be like, and I decided that I will hear all the offers from actors, how they feel inside the scene, but the last decision will be on me and I tried not to push on them, just like to to watch how they are reacting, how they are behaving, and just like to lead them a little, very, very light, you know, because they have very strong personality and I just, uh, I was afraid like to push too hard on them. So we are, we had this period to adjust to, uh, to each other, you know, like to understand who we are, because me personally, I am like more calm person and they are very, you know, energetic. So we, we need this time, like to understand how our this energy combination will work. 

15:53
And, yes, at some moment it was a very emotional turning point in terms of the development of their character, because I felt that they a little bit, they were a little bit afraid because their characters are kind of, at some moments, confused and weak, you know right. So, especially guy, but I did it intentionally because when I did interview with my um, with the, the guy who, who is the reference of this story, the real guy, I asked him about the behavior of his father inside the situation and he told me that he has never seen his father so helpless before. So, inside the occupation, um, from, if I would, uh, if I will switch on this kind of cynical mode, you know, I will tell that the most interesting part of research in this story is the feeling of not even fear but helplessness, right, especially for men, because you can do nothing, literally, you cannot even speak. That's why I did this. My main character, he's a psychotherapist, because the psychotherapist is a person who used to solve the situations with the help of the words, with the help of talking with people. But this is the situation that you are kind of caged and you cannot do your job properly. 

17:44
And it's very, very interesting, this feeling of helplessness for me, and it really hurts me as a person because it's my people, yes, it's ukrainians, and we are like feeling it almost actually every day. 

18:01
But you know, when you are inside the war and you are kind of doing the film about the war, inside the war, um, you kind of want to see brave people and etc, etc, you know, and to see kind of proper heroes. 

18:22
So to do such story was to be challenging a little bit for ukraine, because I didn't know the reaction of ukrainians, you know, because we are so hurt right now from everyday bombing and everyday like killing our people that, uh, by russians, so I don't know the proper directions, you know. So maybe it's not because it was a big ethical question for me, maybe it's not the proper time to explore some weaknesses of our situation. Yeah, but that's why we had this talk, a really long talk with my actors about their characters, why we are doing it, because actually the art, the art of cinema, is one of the rare platform to have this possibility to explore such fragile topics, because you cannot do it, uh, very, very like, I don't know, in in public really, because it's, uh, maybe not the appropriate platform, but art it is, you know, and I think you can't really have them understand it as well as we were able to, because we had about 90 minutes to really feel, however small, like we felt like we were. 

20:02 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Like I said, we were like that was only 90 minutes but we felt like it was longer because we were stuck in these walls of the apartment and stuff. If you're having a conversation with someone, you're like, well, why didn't you just leave? Why didn't you just yo, you're half Russian. Why didn't you just talk to them about being half Russian? Why didn't you just talk to them about being half? You can't really understand that, and so arts, like you said, does have that ability to make us understand and relate to it. That other ways maybe not so much. How has been the reception from your fellow Ukrainians? Did they understand that? 

20:42 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
Yeah, we actually had a couple of days. We had our first, it was a closed screening at the Kyiv Critics Week, and in a week we will have official Ukrainian premiere at MOLODYS Film Festival. So, yeah, previously it was very warm, uh, screening. To be honest, I didn't expect people like it. So so much, I think, like, um, somehow subconsciously, everybody wanted to see something like that. 

21:17
Because, you know, what is interesting is that Ukraine right now not just right now, but since the beginning of the full-scale invasion is a chain of news and we are images in this news news and we are images in this news. It's kind of bomb it villages or old ladies, you know, crying and etc. And I know that, like I would say, bubble I'm living in is totally different. So it's a kind of, uh, I would say normally european life. We have exhibitions with I don't know, drink good coffee. We have, like I don't know, concerts, especially right now, not obviously the first days of the war, but, uh, before the full-scale invasion sometimes. 

22:15
Sometimes Europeans come to Ukraine and they're really surprised that we are so kind of developed country. We look good, you know, and this is what I wanted also to show, because sometimes, when you have all these images from the news in your head. You have some, yeah, you have this image that ukraine is like that, like villages, uh, ruined buildings everywhere and just I don't know all the people or senior people that are crying, something like that. But I know other Ukraine and my Ukraine is very smart and intelligent and pro-European and we are talking about very interesting things at our parties. You know, and I just wanted to recreate it like that we are really can, I don't know, talk about um, theater performances, french philosophers, and this is our normal life, and it was for me, the way how we can connect to Europe as well, to the West world in general, because right now, sadly, we are really kind of depends on the support of West world, especially regarding the weapon transfer. 

23:43
So and I heard this about the, about feedback, yes, I heard some feedbacks from critics from Finland, from like different European countries. They told me that they see that this is kind of people like ours. You know, and it was my one of my intention to show that we are not so far, because I know that before the full screen invasion, ukraine was kind of terra incognita a little bit. We don't know what is country, because for many people, like Europe ended on the border of Poland, you know. And then it's something like Russia and something around Russia. You know, it was a little bit act of cultural diplomacy from my side. 

24:35 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Well, it was great, and also for me. I was was like that is a nice apartment yeah, yeah, it's a little bit like my apartment. 

24:44 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
It's bigger with this glass wall, you know, but yeah, it's a little bit like mine, my taste you also? 

24:55 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
um, is my understanding that based you? Also, it's my understanding that you were able to make this film also because you had there's a special program part of the Venice Film Festival that you sort of won. Can you explain what that was, what this program was and how you got the funding? 

25:15 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
yeah, sure, uh like in general, there is a biennale, like a label. Yes, biennale. It has like contemporary art exhibition every year. Yes, uh, uh, film festival like. It's like an umbrella biennale, it's like, yes, that takes care about different fields of art and almost in each of these fields they have some kind of programs that support emerging young artists. 

25:53
Inside this film section they have this program called Biennale Cinema College and every year they have open call you can submit, but it is especially for low budget projects. Okay, for us it's low budget, for Venice it's micro budget, because it's like one, two hundred thousand euro. It's like like film filmmakers know that it's really a small amount of money, but it gives you actually a lot of freedom to, to, to create something different, I would say so the submission is all from all over the world. So in the first list it was a long list, uh, out of 12. So people were from everywhere, from australia to projects from usa, from hungary, so it's like from all over the world. They make a list from 12 and you go for a first workshop with all these 12 projects and we had 10 days of development, really intense, talking from different sides from storyline side, from producing, how to produce, and the administrators of this program. They are watching you and try to understand do I, do you have this kind of inner ability to fulfill this project, you know, to really implement all your ideas within the frames of this small amount of money? 

27:32
And then you go home and you write your script during three weeks, just three weeks, and you have to write, and I was so afraid because of all this pressure that I didn't write the script during the first two weeks. I just like sit, yes, I just sit and like like, oh, my god, what to do? And then, yes, I, but I think I was just like thinking, you know, I had this like moment just to sit and sing, because sometimes it is how the writing of the script looks, like you are just sitting and that's it. And then like, first, uh, last week, um, I wrote the whole script, I sent and, like in maybe 10 days, they, uh, we got this answer that we got selected, as well as like for us three others. So, in, in general, it was four projects that got this 200,000 euros, and so we got this news in November. We started to shoot in March and first days of September we already had the premiere at Venice Film Festival. So it was very, very fast. It's like express filmmaking, yeah. 

29:03 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Congratulations. Do you know what the name of that program is called? 

29:10 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
Yeah, it is called Biennale Cinema College. 

29:13 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Okay, Biennale Cinema College. How can we learn more about your film? 

29:18 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
is there a? 

29:18
website, that kind of thing yeah, we have an instagram page and facebook page, but also we will soon have the first international premiere except venice we will have in saloniki film festival and also in greece and also in aras uh film festival. It's in france and I'm going, like in 10 days, abroad to present my film. We will have this, um, I hope, a good festival trip with the film and then we will see. I don't know, I actually want somehow to my actors to go also to festival to present the film, because I think they are the core of the story. Yeah, but we don't have a website, but we have really a good instagram and facebook page and we actually posted this morning the photos from from ukrainian premiere oh nice well thank you so much. 

30:25 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Um, I really appreciate it. Um, is there anything else that you wanted to share that we haven't touched on? 

30:33 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
no, I just really want to thank you for your attention. Really, I just feel that Ukrainian voice. I know that people are really a little bit tired of all this news feed, but still the war is going on. You know it's still here, I'm still living in it. You know it's still here, I'm still living in it. And I really appreciate when people start to explore Ukraine and try to understand Ukraine more through art. 

31:09 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Well, thank you for making this story and I think hopefully the war will be over soon, um, but regardless, this is a timeless story. Again, I could relate to it, I think many people, especially. For an international film festival we had people from Philippines and Nigeria and Bolivia and all over the world and everyone could kind of have a sense of they're like we know somebody who's been through it, unfortunately, and so you don't really have and being told in this way. 

31:49
So we found it really powerful and so thank you for coming to share what inspired it, and thank you for coming to share what inspired it, and thank you. And so, yeah, we'll share the links to the Instagram and the Facebook and hopefully we can see it again. 

32:05 - Zhanna Ozirana (Guest)
Thank you very much. 

32:06 - VO (Host)
Thank you, thank you so much Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video. To learn more about WIF, visit w-i-f-v-vorg. This podcast is created by Sandra Abrams, candice Block, brandon Ferry, tara Jabari and Jerry Reinhart and edited by Michelle Kim and Inez Perez, with audio production and mix by Steve Lack Audio Subscribe. To continue learning from more amazing media makers, please visit mediummakerspotlightcom for more information.