It is common in our occupations to work far from home, in foreign countries, with local teams. Every time it happens, we discover new people and new friendships are created over borders, and every time the common practice of our jobs – of our passion ! – brings us together, despite our different cultures.

Once the last shot has been shot, we return home with the memory of this shooting engraved in our minds, intimately linked with the country we had the opportunity to discover, and with the faces of colleagues with whom we shared an often intense chapter of our lives.

Until a few days ago, Ukraine was one of those countries for me, and echoed with the memory of a happy 2008 shooting.

At that time, Vladimir Putin (or rather his front man, Dmitry Medvedev) seemed more interested in Georgia than in Ukraine… Even if some of my more pessimistic Ukrainian colleagues were worryingly looking at what was happening in South Ossetia.

At that time, the filming schedule was leading us to Kyiv and Kharkiv for the filming of “Farewell”, for which I was one of the focus pullers…

At that time, most of the feature films were still shot in 35mm, and I remember teaching my assistant, Dima, to load the Aaton 35 (which he hated, as he was used to Moviecam, the only 35mm camera available in Kyiv !). Unlike many of his colleagues, Dima did not speak English… And refused to speak Russian with our Russian-speaking French script supervisor, because he said that his language was Ukrainian, and his country Ukraine. He loved his country so much… He offered me several bottles of Ukrainian wine that I was happy to discover.

At the time, Ukraine was thinking of re-launching its Soviet-era studios, and we were able to visit them to pick up some of our light gear, to do our prep work, to load our trucks – which were postal trucks re-purposed as camera trucks (super efficient… The best in the world!).
It was full of dust, but it smelled like movie-making ! Our young gaffers and grips worked for the local equipment rental house, named Illuminator. Under the leadership of their bosses Sacha and Micha, they did a great job. I still have the Illuminator T-shirt in my closet, among the pile of Kodak T-shirts… This one tastes bitter these days, but has now become priceless to me.

At the time, it was not uncommon to go back on set with a smaller crew, a few months after the principal photography was completed, to reshoot some missing takes, and to hire a camera assistant in order to test a camera on location a week beforehand. I was lucky enough to be sent to Illuminator for six days of testing… The Moviecam was already set up, and since I was not allowed to touch up the lenses, the work was done in only a few hours, and I had the joy of being able to visit Kyiv with my friends from the shooting – and to be crushed by them, during a memorable karaoke night. Jan, the Polish-born video assistant, who liked to say that we don’t give a fuck about borders, and Lena, the on-set dresser, who knew Kyiv like the back of her hand, and took on the role of an unofficial guide.

At the time, when I was talking with Micha, the 20 years old second assistant director, who was perfectly fluent in English, he told me that Ukraine joining the EU was only a few years away… At least that’s what he was hoping for, and to be able to travel for his job, one day. He even requested to meet in Paris a few years on, working on the set of a commercial on the Champs-Elysées !

And today… Today, Ukraine finds itself at the core of terrible news.

These last days, I wonder what my colleagues of 2008 are doing now. Most of them were thirty-year-olds enthusiastic people, passionate about movie making, serious and skilled professionals… And they are now called to take up arms against such a powerful enemy, unable to leave their territory. They may be spending their nights in the subway of Kyiv, where we filmed such beautiful images…

I can only salute their courage, as the courage of an entire people in the midst of this intolerable situation.

The United Cinematographers Organization supports the Ukrainian population, and the film and broadcast professionals who have to put down their cameras to take up arms.