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18 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 2015 and a French-based film production company. I am sharing this tale last although I saw it before the other two films. Had I screened only this fea- ture film, I likely would have summed up the con- ditions in Ukraine very differently. As industry and other press attendees walked out of this mov- ie, a lone colleague and I sat through to the bitter end, hoping for some sort of redeeming explana- tion for nearly two hours of abuse and violence among deaf-mute Ukrainian teenagers. I doubt that you will be able to find this film; there is no dialogue, no subtitles—it is all in sign language, yet one can clearly follow the silent storyline. That feat in itself deserves a technical brilliance award for wordless storytelling. But what a story! Shot in what appears to be Kyiv or anoth- er major Ukrainian city, the film begins with a young boy, alone, exiting a bus, all of his posses- sions carried in one bag. He arrives at an institu- tion that seems initially to be a school—but domi- nated more by shared dormitories than class- rooms. Multiple cots are crowded in gender- specific rooms, all across the hall from one anoth- er. The boys clearly run the place. Their signing is dramatic, dictatorial, and angry. Fighting deter- mines who’s “in” and who gets bullied. The toughest also get sexual “privileges” with the girls, including nightly breaking out to pimp the obedi- ent girls to parked truck drivers. Enough said about those recurring scenes. There is no emo- tion, scarce empathy, nothing resembling even the semi-normal behavior reported among our cities’ street/criminal gangs. This is indeed an unmonitored, tribal lifestyle. No sign of parents or family of any sort. No hope of a future. Aban- doned or orphaned, handicapped children are left to their own devices to survive. And there’s pre- cious little survival. The film shows a lost genera- tion in Ukraine. The questions left after an ending that is even more shocking than expected likely have no answer. And so there you have it: Ukraine—a country and its people struggling against unimag- inable odds, again barely a blip on the world’s list of concerns; a country full of ghosts. I am relieved that neither my Baba nor Grandfather Chawluk, nor any of their five Ukrainian-American chil- dren—Olga, Walter, Ann, Bohdan, and my Mother Myra Cecile—are alive to see any of this. They thought the war was over. Dr. JoAnn Myer Valenti, Professor Emerita, belongs to UNWLA Branch 124 in St. Peters- burg, FL. She resides in the Tampa Bay area. Істо рія одні єї фо то графі ї Фотографія вокально- драматичного гуртка села Іванє- Пусте Борщівського повіту на Тернопіллі (розташоване над Дністром недалеко Заліщик), зроблена 15 квітня 1934 року. В центрі сидять: отець Іван Чолган – довголітній парох села і голова “Просвіти”, зліва від нього – Евстахій Гомотюк, хорунжий УСС, директор повітового Союзу і визначний громадський діяч, справа – дяк Боднарчук Микола, диригент хору, біля нього вчителька місцевої школи. В прекрасних українських народних строях члени вокально-драматичного гуртка. Сидять діти (зліва): Олександер Гомотюк, Ярослава і Мирослав Чолгани – діти отця-пароха (пізніше прожи- вали в Америці). Село Іванє-Пусте було дуже свідоме, патріотичне. Читальня “Просвіти” там діяла від 1892 року. У 30-х роках ХХ столітті в селі були діяльними товариства “Луг”. “Пласт”, просвітянський хор, вокально-драматичний гурток. В репертуарі хору були не лише українські народні пісні, але й складні музичні твори. наприклад: “Вечорниці” Міщинського та інших українських композиторів. Закінчення на стор. 29.
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