Beyond the “FINDING HOPE”

FILM.UA in partnership with Intra Communications Inc. started filming “FINDING HOPE”, a 12 episode drama. The movie will premiere in 2017.

“The plot is based on a story about a family trying to get away from a sect. Apart from its dramatic content, this movie is exciting for me because it gives a chance to dig into the very sense of belief: what is it for a human being? Why there is someone who remains a good man doing the right things without any belief in God at all, and others, staying committed to their belief, resort to amoralities? – tells Sergey Krutin, the director of the movie. – There are both a storyline about a made up religious community who refused the benefits of civilization, and also a love line. I believe we will make it into a nice movie, because we’ve got an ingenious and absorbing plot, great cast, amazing team, and we are all here full of strength and energy looking forward to make this movie.”

Synopsis: Varya, an 18 year-old, lives with her parents in a closed religious community. Since the very childhood all they have been teaching her is working hard, believing sincerely, say prayers, and obey the will of the community’s leader - His Holiness. This is her whom he wants to make his fourth wife. But neither violence, nor bullying by His Holiness' "elder" wives cannot break her morale. She escapes hoping to get the law after His Holiness in the greater world, though she knows nothing about life beyond the community. His Holiness gets his handy men to find the girl, for she is the living witness of his wrong-doings, moreover, he is deeply in love with her. Street law is violent and merciless to strangers, but life at the bottom of the heap transforms Varya from a weak and intimidated little girl into a strong, willful young woman. She is always one step ahead of her chasers, but is it enough to get her revenge on His Holiness, and withdraw her little sister from the community?

As told by the movie creators, the casting for the project was really time- and effort-consuming. The hardest thing to do was find an actor for the role of Hid Holiness – the leader of the sect.  “At first glance, this character has to be a total goody, but on the other hand, behind a good man stands an insidious villain, doing all kinds of things to find a key to any human being, - says the director. “His Holiness has an individual approach to each of them, he knows where their Achilles' heel is and therefore knows how to inflict real pain on everybody. We were casting this role for a very long time, and finally found Alexander Yatsko, who will play our root of all evil.”

Moreover, the movie features a lot of the other talented actors - Rimma Zyubina, Nadezhda Markina, Anastasiia Panina, Sergey Derevyanko and many others. “I loved the story itself, the script, and my character. This role is something totally different from the roles I have been playing for the last two years. I have been waiting for such a character for a very long time – special, enlightened, different from others and with such a complicated life story, - says Rina Grishina, who played Varya. – You have to remember yourself really young, without the life experience I’ve got. But as a matter of fact, this role is a kind of a therapy, a role of a believer, who goes on and on with his belief in spite of being constantly betrayed. This is a very complicated character.”

“Line of Light” is a thrilling, nontrivial and, as for me, very urgent movie. There has been a lot of people lately, hiding from an outside world, finding whatever other, alternative paths of their existence there is, making it their comfort zone. But often other. More serious problems arise from such a life – says Oleg Korkushko, who plays Fyodor, one of the community’s inhabitants.  – My character is a very strong man. Finding himself in a situation, he starts fighting and overcoming difficulties, unlike myself, I know I wouldn’t be able to do so, I would cave into the circumstances.”

For the filming of “Line of Light”, there is a purpose-built setting in the Korostyshiv quarry, – the community’s colony. According to Victor Fomin, the film’s art director, the surroundings of the quarry, its centuries-old stones and goblet-like shape, allowed them to conveniently allocate more than 12 items into it and make an impression of a massive colony that escaped the modern civilization. The setting was built up in 24 days, plus a week to create textures. After the filming is over, the main part of the setting will remain in the quarry as requested by the regional authorities.

The filming of the series will take place in the Korostyshiv quarry, the Novogorodetsky quarry, and in Kyiv, and will end late 2016.  The movie will premiere in 2017. What we can offer you now is watch the first shots from the film set of “Line of Light”. 

Scriptwriter: Elena Boyko, Maria Bek

Camera: Alexander Onopriienko

Director: Sergey Krutin

Producers: Maria Alexeeva, Sergey Karatayev, Victor Umnov, Leonard Yanovsky, Victor Mirsky, Andrey Rizvanyuk

Cast: Alexander Yatsko, Rimma Zyubina, Nadezhda Markina, Rina Grishina, Sergey Derevyanko, Anastasiia Panina, Julia Galkina, Maria Bayeva, Mark Drobot, Vitalina Bibliv, Mikhail Kukuyuk, Nataliya Vasko, Vitaliy Ivanchenko, Oleg Korkushko, and others.