The plot of the film “House “Slovo”. The never-ending novel” covers the 1930s in its entirety. From the settlement of the new building by Ukrainian writers in 1930 to the fatal 1937, when the Stalinist terror almost completely destroyed the inhabitants of the Slovo Building. The story begins when the budding proletarian poet Volodymyr Akimov (Dmytro Oliynyk) moves into the house. He quickly gets along with Mykola Khvylov (Vyacheslav Dovzhenko), but his literary work, which is too mediocre and graphomaniac, causes ridicule from his more talented colleagues. Among them are Pavlo Tychyna (Kostyantyn Temlyak) and Mykhayl Semenko (Hennadiy Popenko). After an unsuccessful literary career, Akimov becomes a special agent and the chief sextot of the NKVD in Slova. And later, a Communist Party figure who alternately represses the residents of the house.
A frame from the film “House ‘Slovo'”. An endless novel”.
The “Slovo” house is a truly unique cultural phenomenon, when the main artists of the country in a certain era were suddenly gathered to live under one roof. If Ukrainian cinema had a little more money in the 1990s and a little less Russian money in the 2000s and 2010s, the film about this writer’s cooperative would have appeared earlier. Actually, it took 12 long years for Taras Tomenko to make his full-length game debut. In 2012, together with screenwriter Lyubov Yakymchuk, he actually studied and studied the literary process of the 1930s. In 2017, the documentary film “House “Slovo”” appeared, which became a certain conclusion of this five-year odyssey through the archives and the scrupulous selection of all possible facts and details about the life of the generation that was destroyed by the Stalinist regime. In 2021, a feature film was finally released. I hope that he does not put an end to the cinematic reflections on the literary process of the 1930s, but only a colon, which will inspire the emergence of new documentary or game projects about the galaxy of Ukrainian writers.
A frame from the film “House ‘Slovo'”. An endless novel”.
Filming a historical drama is always a difficult and time-consuming process, because the plot must move within the predetermined coordinates of historical reality, and therefore the entire film crew works within certain frameworks. Taras Tomenko, who has deeply researched the era, tries to convey the Ukrainian 1930s in the smallest details. Through locations, such as the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Because of Natalia Uzhvai’s boots, which all Kharkiv fashionistas dream about. Because of the visual concealment of the metal-plastic windows of Derzhprom in the very noir scene of the meeting between Khvylovy and the Communist Party official. All this shows a complex, thoughtful and harmonious concept of a great historical drama.
This genre has always been a rather weak point in modern Ukrainian cinema. Sometimes, as in “Krutakh. 1918”, a completely unworkable scenario, filled with movie blunders at the level of a second-tenth grader. Sometimes, as in “Another Frank”, an almost decorative museum-like visual is added to a bad script, which you simply cannot believe. “House “Slovo”. “The Neverending Romance” becomes the first historical drama in which everything works – from the initial idea and script to the last cufflink, lace or bookmark.
A frame from the film “House ‘Slovo'”. An endless novel”.
When the director creates such a film as “The Word House”. Never-ending novel”, he faces an extremely difficult task: there are a lot of real historical characters, each of them is a charismatic and sometimes brilliant personality, which is worth a separate film. Each one should be shown in the cinema, but at the same time, its timeline should not be stretched for dozens of hours. Tomenko very skillfully manages a large group of actors and brings the storyline of each character to its logical end, revealing their character and personal drama in turn. There are no extra characters in the film that would not advance the plot. At the same time, working with characters whose prototypes have long been dusted with dust in bronze biographies in anthologies of Ukrainian literature, Tomenko tries to give them human traits that these anthologies have deprived them of. That is why the dreamy and trembling Volodymyr Sosyura (Andriy Mai) jumps from the balcony in buckwheat to Raisa Troyanker (Valeria Khodos), who walks around the apartment naked with a playful whip in her hands. Semenko is constantly rude and walks with his son to the natural history museum, while Mike Johansen (Andrii Isaenko) deals with his greyhounds.
A frame from the film “House ‘Slovo'”. An endless novel”.
Tomenko desacralizes the textbook images of Ukrainian classics and creates a massive historical drama of writers who lived an ordinary life that was cut short by Stalin’s flywheel. However, there are some funny acting decisions in the film. For example, Oleksandr Yarema in the role of the classic American social novel Theodore Dreiser is more of a caricature of the writer than his serious embodiment.
Mykola Khvylovy is the leader of this literary camp. A Communist Party official says about him: “He was a commander in Gromadyansk. And now he is looked upon as a commander.” Tomenko reveals the image of Khvylovy from two important positions: as an actor who was the first to realize that Bolshevik terror was an inevitable disaster, and as a person who was tormented until his death by PTSD, obtained as a result of his long participation in the war. Vyacheslav Dovzhenko plays Khvylovy with his characteristic theatricality. Here, this pathos seems to be overbearing, because Khvylovy’s contemporaries described him as a simple man, although very hot-tempered. It is difficult not to compare the images of Dovzhenko in the tapes “Budynok Slovo”. An endless novel” and “Another Franko”, where he played Peter Franko. Dovzhenka’s performance is incredibly similar, the only thing that distinguishes these characters in the actor’s presentation is the shape of the mustache.
A frame from the film “House ‘Slovo'”. An endless novel”.
Instead, a really complex and interesting acting performance is given by Dmytro Oliynyk, who is actually the main character of this film. His character, Volodymyr Akimov, is the only fictional character in this film. According to the director, he conceived Akimov as a prototype of the young Putin during his service in the KGB. Oleiynyk conveys this vibe of a young reclusive hebist who is slowly beginning to enjoy the power he has gained, quite subtly and accurately. At first, his character is even sympathetic – a simple guy who dreams of becoming a writer. But instead of a difficult ascent to the goal, the viewer watches the main character’s deep fall and transformation into a tyrant and sadist. At the same time, Akimov is not a colorful and charismatic scoundrel (the NKVD agents sometimes had no less charisma than writers); despite the acquired power, he remains petty, cowardly, envious and cannot overcome this low inside in any way.
Tomenko specially creates a great contrast between textured, colorful, brilliant Khvylov and short, pale and cowardly Akimov. The former, without power, can, thanks to his willpower and talent, afford much more than Akimov, showered with party favors and directive documents. By the way, this name of the hero is not accidental – NKVD employee Akimov signed Semenkov’s sentence. The thoughtfulness of such little things is a feature of Taras Tomenko’s approach to filmmaking.
A frame from the film “House ‘Slovo'”. An endless novel”.
“House “Slovo”. An endless novel” is a black-and-white film. Moreover, this black-and-white aesthetic is not just a desire to go retro, but a very sophisticated visual technique. Cameraman Mykhailo Lubarsky constantly changes the contrast between white and black. For example, in 1930, when the “Slovo” building was just being inhabited, it is a very bright picture that conveys a feeling of joy at the appearance of a unique creative hub. As the plot progresses, black dominates white more, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers. The visual highlights how what started out very bright and hopeful eventually ended tragically and in complete despair. There is also symbolism in this, because this claustrophobia can be perceived as a certain metaphor for the end of freedom.
Tomenko’s film, shot in 2021, resonates completely differently in today’s realities. This applies primarily to the scenes with educational air alarms and the landlord’s boasting that the house has its own storage. As well as a general understanding of the ethical coordinates of the characters in the film. Akimov, who suddenly became everything from nobody, is now completely commensurate with modern collaborators in the occupied territories – an insignificant moth who suddenly became the center of his small and sad universe. And young writers, most of whom will not live to see the final credits, turn into a profound metaphor. She points to another totalitarian regime from Moscow, which, using different methods, but just as stubbornly, continues to destroy the young Ukrainian artistic elite. Who also loves, suffers, quarrels and lives her life outside of written books, painted pictures or filmed films.
