November 6, 2015. Agency press-service informed, that Chairman of the Ukrainian State Film Agency Philip Ilienko signed a contract of state financial support for the production of Ukrainian-Italian film “EASY” directed by Andrea Magnani.

This is the first contract to support the production of the film, signed by the the State Cinema Committee since January 2014. The agency (under the conditions of extremely meager financing) has not been able to participate in the creation of new film projects for about two years. It could only fulfill its obligations under contracts that had been already signed. The increase of the State Film Committee budget (to 164 million UAH) helped to improve the situation. This was a part of changes in the state budget. This year deputies have allocated additional 100 million UAH to the agency to support home-produced films.

On November 3, in the news agency “Ukrinform” was held a press conference dedicated to the production start of the movie – the first in the history Ukrainian-Italian co-production. During the press conference, Philipp Ilienko reported that the film “EASY” will be financed until the end of the month. He said that the development of the film has been lasting since 2010. The events in the film were supposed to take place in summer, but the authors rewrote the script to make it possible start shooting the film now – in winter.

Producer Oleg Shcherbina said that the budget of “EASY” is 1.2 million EUR. The Ukrainian side has formed 58% of the budget, the Italian – 42%. State Committee for Cinematography provides 20% of the necessary funds. Also, the film got financial support from the Ministry of Culture of Italy (Oleg Shcherbina mentioned, that this is the first time in history, when the Ministry of Culture of Italy supported the project, in which Italy is a minority partner) and the Audiovisual Fund of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Now the tape is in the start-up stage, the casting is being conducted. Filming is planned to begin in mid-January. About 75% of the film’s action takes place in Ukraine. Filming will take place near Kiev, and in the Carpathians – in Truskavets, and high in the mountains (where the filmmakers collaborate with Truskavets Film Commission “Subcarpathia”). Shooting in Italy will be in the town of Grado, near Venice.

The shooting team of the film will be Ukrainian. In particular, the Director of photography – Dmitriy Nedrya. Now he is working on «Selfieparty» by Ljubomir Levitsky. Italian actor will perform the main role.

The film is going to be completed by the summer. Then the year of the festival distribution of a motion picture will begin. Producers aspire to submit “EASY” to the festival “A” class, and dream of the IFF in Berlin and Venice. They also consider the possibility of applying for the Rome International Film Festival.

A wide film distribution in Ukraine will take place in the future. There is a preliminary agreement with the largest native Film Distributing Company B&H Film Distribution. Oleg Shcherbina also added that producers has not planned marketing strategy yet. The film also hasn’t got media partner yet. This is a conscious decision. It was decided to shoot the material at first and only then talk about it.

Director Andrea Magnani has been working on the script since 2009. Originally, the film was to take place in the Balkans. Nevertheless, after acquaintance with producers Oleg Shcherbina and Julia Cherniavskaya, and after a tour around Ukraine, Andrea Magnani decided to relocate the story to the Carpathian Mountains.

In the production of “EASY” participated the following companies: Fresh Production (Kiev, Ukraine), Bartleby Film (Rome, Italy) and Pilgrim Film (Trieste, Italy).

On the photo: Andrea Magnani, Philip Ilienko and Oleg Shcherbina.
Source: Ukrainian Association of Cinematographers ©

 

 

 

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