Dovzhenko in Berlin. Part 2. Dovzhenko – the return.

In the previous part of our article We wrote about the time Oleksandr Dovzhenko spent in Berlin and about its potential influence on the master’s work. In today’s continuation, we discuss how Berlin remembered and remembers Dovzhenko, how the German information space is gradually undergoing a worldview shift from the image of a “Soviet” to that of a “Ukrainian” classic, and what the current war has to do with it.

As is not hard to guess, until recently Oleksandr Petrovych was honored as a representative of the circle of Soviet film classics. A vivid example of this kind of “unifying” approach under the umbrella of a “single and indivisible” Soviet culture were the joint exhibitions organized in 1973 by the State Film Archive of the GDR and the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, dedicated to Dovzhenko and Vertov — part of a planned series on the pioneers of Soviet cinema.¹.

Cinema “Arsenal”

But an even more important event connected with Dovzhenko’s name — though on a symbolic level — was something else. In 1970, the German film scholars Erika and Ulrich Gregor opened a new cinema meant to embody a new approach to film culture in Germany. The founders, “leftists” from West Berlin, were inspired by the Cinémathèque Française in Paris and wanted to screen films that had never before been shown in Germany, combining film screenings with reflection and placement in a broader context. “If you like, you can think of us as a kind of educational institution. We strive not only to entertain but also to educate. We try to promote discussion about cinema. To this end, we also invite directors, screenwriters, and critics,” Ulrich Gregor explained in an interview.The new cinema was given the name “Arsenal,” after Dovzhenko’s film. There were two reasons for this choice: first, Arsenal is one of the key Soviet films of the 1920s, associated with a new cinematic language and revolutionary aims in film. Second, the organizers liked the militaristic undertone of the title: cinema was to become a weapon to fight for social change. The new season of “Arsenal” opened with a screening of the film.².

At first, the cinema was located in the Schöneberg district; in 2000 it moved to a more prestigious location — the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, where the Film Museum was also housed until recently. Since this year, it has been located in the silent green Kulturquartier in the Wedding district. “Arsenal,” no longer just an art-house cinema and film club but, since 2008, the Institute for Film and Video Art, is one of Berlin’s key film centers and largely preserves its concept of screening contemporary, auteur, experimental, and classic films, presenting each work not in isolation but within its social and cultural context.

Of course, we shouldn’t give in to illusions: at the time the cinema was founded, Dovzhenko and his films were perceived as part of Soviet revolutionary cinematography. At the same time, as the times have changed, so has the perspective: already during the full-scale invasion, the Arsenal cinema itself has taken part in the symbolic “return” of Dovzhenko to Ukraine.

Dovzhenko’s Cinema as Cultural Diplomacy

Finally, it is worth talking about how Dovzhenko, in our own time, has come to serve as a Ukrainian cultural diplomat. What we mean here, of course, are the screenings of his works, which have become more frequent since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war — especially after the full-scale invasion — and, more importantly, have acquired new interpretations within the context of Ukrainian, rather than Soviet, culture and history.

Довженко стає ключовою фігурою символічного повернення української кіноспадщини і зокрема українського кіноавангарду. У жовтні 2015 року в «Арсеналі» демонструють цикл «Політика ритму. Кіно українського авангарду», до програми якого увійшли зокрема роботи Дзиґи Вертова, Івана Кавалерідзе, Георгія Стабового; з фільмів Довженка було показано «Звенигору» й «Арсенал». Куратори й організатори були і з німецької, і з української сторони: Олена Фоґман та Ґеорґ Вітте зі Станіславом Мензелевським з «Довженко-Центру»³.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, screenings became more frequent, and the films themselves required special presentation and recontextualization. In June 2022, Arsenal was shown again, once more in cooperation with the Dovzhenko Centre. The event took place with the support of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (moderated by Barbara Wurm from the Institute of Slavic Studies at Humboldt University, with guest Anna Onufriyenko from the Dovzhenko Centre).Already in the screening’s annotation, the emphases were clearly set: “In Soviet mythology, the Arsenal Uprising is nothing less than a key episode of Bolshevik martyrdom in Ukraine. However, one should remember that the uprising was not so much an act of Kyiv residents against the Central Rada as a protest of Russian workers against this Rada, incited by Bolsheviks who were competing for power in Ukraine. Arsenal is considered one of the most outstanding expressionist works in the Ukrainian film canon. Oleksandr Dovzhenko, inspired by ideas of national liberation and social revolution, pushed the events of the uprising to the margins of the narrative, creating a political showcase film for the Ukrainian intelligentsia on both sides of the civil war. Instead of insisting on a clear political message, the film depicts the chaos of war. The film premiered in 1929.”

Almost a hundred years later, Ukraine found itself at the epicenter of a new war. The current events demand a reconsideration not only of the events of the early 20th century but also of how they were perceived and portrayed by Ukrainian filmmakers.⁴We provide the full annotation here because it reflects the Ukrainian perspective not only on the film but also on the historical events behind it, and it is precisely this narrative that the Dovzhenko screenings were meant to promote.Arsenal was the first film in the program “Perspectives of Ukrainian Cinema” (organized by the German Cinematheque, curated by Viktoria Leshchenko and Yulia Kovalenko) in Berlin, Hamburg, and Leipzig. This program included screenings of diverse Ukrainian films with the participation of Ukrainian filmmakers and cultural figures.One of the materials about the program bore a telling subtitle: “Perspectives of Ukrainian Cinema: Curators Also Resist the Russian Narrative That Denies Ukraine Its Own History and Culture.”⁵.

In October of the same year, the Goethe Institute organized an exhibition titled “Im Exil” (“In Exile”) (curated by Olga Sievers and Olena Lykhovodova). The exhibition opened with cultural markers such as the poetry of Zhadan, the performance “Anxiety” by Vlad Troitsky, and a screening of Earth accompanied by a soundtrack from the band DakhaBrakha. Participants in the project included Kateryna Hornostai, Iryna Tsilyk, Ihor Hayday, Maryna Yer Horbach, and others.⁶

In 2023, the cultural work around Dovzhenko continued: on Ukraine’s Independence Day festival, August 23, Earth was screened, also accompanied by music from Dakha Brakha. In the announcement, the film was presented specifically as Ukrainian, with the country of origin listed as Ukraine rather than the USSR. The film, provided by the Dovzhenko Centre, was introduced by researcher Oleksiy Isakov from Viadrina University in Frankfurt (Oder).⁷.

In 2024, Dovzhenko continued to take part in Berlin’s cultural life. First, the Dovzhenko Centre brought its exhibition titled “The River Roared Like a Wounded Beast” (curators Alona Penziy, Stanislav Bityutskyi, Oleksandr Telyuk).⁸The exhibition, which could be seen from May 3 to May 20 at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, was born in the context of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in June 2023 and the missile strike on the DniproHES. It was dedicated to the Soviet hydroelectric projects on the Dnipro River as well as the cultural representation of all these significant events.Of course, a prominent place in the exhibition was given to Dovzhenko’s legacy — Ivan and Poem of the Sea. The project also included an additional cultural program, which featured a screening of Poem of the Sea by Yulia Solntseva, based on Dovzhenko’s text, and a lecture by Yelyzaveta Yevseyeva titled “Nova Kakhovka, Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Dream City: How the Film Director Contributed to the City’s Construction.”⁹.

Finally, on September 10 of the same year, a screening of the eponymous film was held at the Arsenal cinema, dedicated to the director’s 130th birthday. The event was organized by the Ukrainian Institute in Germany. The screening was accompanied by a discussion with Anna Onufriyenko (from the Dovzhenko Centre), representing Ukraine, and German film scholar Barbara Wurm.The screening was sold out, followed by an active discussion. Subsequently, a series of articles appeared in the German press, demonstrating that the strategy is bearing fruit: the film is positioned as Ukrainian and interpreted through a Ukrainian lens. Parallels are drawn between the events of a century ago and the present day, with mention of the issue of Ukrainian decolonization.There are also references to the Berlin chapter in Dovzhenko’s life, which in turn helps foster empathy for Ukraine by emphasizing Dovzhenko’s—and through him, Ukrainian culture’s—connections with Germany.¹⁰.

Overall, the cultural victory has been, so to speak, the “return” of Dovzhenko to Ukraine. Unfortunately, the war has largely contributed to this, as interest in Ukraine has grown and more Ukrainian cultural events have appeared abroad.A characteristic aspect in this regard has been the interpretation of Dovzhenko’s identity and his films: for the founders of the Arsenal cinema, a post-war generation that grew up during the Cold War, it was unquestionably Soviet cinema. With the collapse of the USSR, the situation changed little; for example, in the journal Afterimage, with the characteristic subtitle “A Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism,” an article from 2013 still positions Arsenal as a Soviet film by a Soviet director.¹¹.

It can now be said that the situation has shifted, but overall the process is hardly complete. An important aspect is the parallels drawn between the past and the present. Moreover, this is not only about direct parallels, such as today’s and the Arsenal’s depiction of the Ukrainian-Russian wars.An interesting context for the contemporary perception of Earth was offered by journalist Matthias Heine from Die Welt: in a July 2022 article, when Russia was blackmailing the world with a blockade of Ukrainian grain, he wrote about the events of the revolution and collectivization as, among other things, a war for Ukrainian bread.The author even drew parallels with Leni Riefenstahl in the sense that Dovzhenko’s film also has a grim “background”: the ruthless fight against the so-called “kulaks” and, in the future, the Holodomor (referred to in the article as Holodomor, the Hunger Holocaust).¹²Thus, the West is gradually not only “reinterpreting” the “Soviet classics”: Dovzhenko’s cinema is helping the world at large to understand the historical dimension of the current war.

¹  Wäscher Edith. berlin – staatliches filmarchiv der DDR // FIAF Information Bulletin: Brussels Iss. 5, (Dec 1973): 4

²  Медяний Володимир. «Арсенал» – берлінський Олімп шанувальників кіно. 09.01.2009. https://www.dw.com/uk/arsenal-berlinskyi-olimp-shanuvalnykiv-kino/a-3920442

³  Filmreihe: Politik des Rhythmus. Das Kino der ukrainischen Avantgarde. 01.07.2015 – 10.07.2015. https://www.oei.fu-berlin.de/kultur/termine/2015_politik_des_rhythmus.html

⁴  https://www.deutsche-kinemathek.de/de/besuch/veranstaltungskalender/arsenal

⁵  Lenz Susanne. In Berlin kommen kostenlos ukrainische Filme ins Kino. 09.06.2022. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kultur-vergnuegen/kino-streaming/in-berlin-kommen-kostenlos-ukrainische-filme-ins-kino-li.234277

⁶  Thelin Natalie. Goethe-Institut Im Exil: Ukrainian Art During Times of War. The Goethe-Institut in Berlin holds an exhibition of art created by Ukrainian artists. 07.10.2024. https://www.berlinglobal.org/index.php?goethe-institut-im-exil-ukrainian-art-during-times-of-war

⁷  https://www.uffberlin.de/events

⁸ Тhe project has been created in cooperation between the Visual Culture Research Center / Kyiv Biennial and the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre on the occasion of Kyiv Perennial in Berlin with the support of Teiger Foundation.

⁹  https://2023.kyivbiennial.org/eng/program/the-river-wailed-like-a-wounded-beast-(berlin)

¹⁰ RushtonElizabeth. „Arsenal“: Der ukrainische Kino-Klassiker, der seine Wurzeln in Berlin hat. 11.09.2024. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kultur-vergnuegen/arsenal-der-ukrainische-kino-klassiker-der-seine-wurzeln-in-berlin-hat-li.2252945; Boehme Tim Caspar. Wie man zum Lokführer wird. 17. 9. 2024. https://taz.de/Sowjet-Filmklassiker-Arsenal/!6033886/

¹¹ Yates, Steven. 50 YEARS OF THE ARSENAL CINEMA. Afterimage; Berkeley Vol. 41, Iss. 3, (Nov/Dec 2013): 8-9.

¹²  Heine Matthias. Dieser Kampf um den Weizen der Ukraine endete mit Massenmord. 20.07.2022. https://www.welt.de/kultur/literarischewelt/article239788657/Erde-von-Dowschenko-Kampf-um-den-Weizen-der-Ukraine.html