“Ursus”  –  a Ukraine-Germany-Georgia collaboration, is one of the most interesting and big scale projects of this year.

Originality of this project is the confluence of not only content and form  – distinctive choices of subject plus a interesting shaping of telling but the involvement of big film making company, multinational cast, and the advanced technologies of motion capture used in such films as Robert Zemeckis’s “The Polar Express” or “Beowulf,” and Steve Spielberg’s “Tintin.” Last but not least, we should mention the Arri Alexa cameras and variety of the locations that span many European countries plus Georgia. All these creates the high degree of expectations consequently it is no wonder that the project has already attracted notable German promoters. The correspondent of “Ukrainian Week” Yaroslav Podgora-Gviazdovsky asked Mr. Zaza Buadze, the screenwriter, to share his opinions about the project.

U.W.: First thing that strikes in the screenplay is the allusion to the film world, the main character in the film, a filmmaker, is obsessed by the idea to get the Berlinale Grand Prix; also, there are characters that bear the names of the famous filmmakers and whole thing end with the bear becoming a hero.  Are you that keen on getting the Berlinale Grand Prix yourself?

Z.B.:  Consider it as the cinephile games. In fact the whole thing started back in the beginning o the 90ies during the unrest times in Georgia. That’s when Ineke Smiths, a filmmaker from Holland, decided to take the bear living on the territory of the film studio in Tbilisi to Holland. We literally begged her to leave alone the animal and take us with her for we were jobless and depressed. After some time Otar Shamatava, the artistic director of the “IMEDI” TV channel for whom I was   making the film series reminded me of Ineke’s decision and suggested me to write a story based on it. He saw it as an allegory of the generation of the filmmakers living in Georgia in post civil war times.  I started to write it and as far as Otar refused to interfere in the writing process the first draft turned out in 250 pages. I had two story lines, – first, the main hero, “turned” into a bear and being transported to the Berlin zoo, and the supporting stories of him, his friend Thoma and Sonya, the kind of unfinished sub-stories, film in film. Of course, we had to cut the first draft and that’s how the sub-stories vanished from it, including considerable bulk of the cinephile games. Here I would like to allude to an epigraph to Claude Lelouch’s fairly bad film, “A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later” – it says: “Filmmaking is hard work plus some strike of luck.” That’s how the character of Jean-Pierre Janneau that sends us to Jean-Jaqcues Annaud and his “Bear.”

U.W.: Why Germany? I mean. Why not to France and Jean-Jacques Annaud himself?

Z.B.: Because of the bear character. If there’s Berlin film festival where the main prize is Golden Bear why shall we need to go either to Annaud or Venice?

U.W.: The original version of the screenplay was not written in German. I have read its Ukrainian version. Does it mean it’s going to be in Ukrainian?

Z.B.:  I’d love it to be multi lingual.  In the beginning the main characters, NIka and Thoma talk in Georgian and Ukrainian for Nika is a Georgian and Thoma is an Georgia based Ukrainian. By the way him being Ukrainian is not the result of me living in Kiev. His character has a prototype, – a stuntman who worked in “Georgian Film” studio. He was a Ukrainian guy. But do not forget, his name is Gogol! It’s not because like it is in the Bond films when a KGB general is Pushkin. There are lots of Gogols living in Georgia and there’s one village in the western part of Georgia where most villagers are Gogols. Their ancestors moved to Georgia almost a century and half ago. In fact they are already Georgians but they still cling to their Ukrainian roots.

U.W.: Did you try to deliberately incorporate some of the well-used genre or plot analogues during the writing process?

Z.B.:   No. It was poor stream of consciousness. I started it in 2005 and Otar and me finished it in 2006 with a considerable help from the side of Dirk Dotsert, a writer, a producer and a journalist plus well-known script doctor. As soon as we realized that the project could have been made with the involvement of the foreign partners we decided to pay more attention to its overall vision, I mean there were some things in the original version of the screenplay that could have been easily perceivable for the Georgians but not for the Europeans. Lots of people have read its last version so far without any hints of misunderstanding for this is the universal story.

U.W.: In the screenplay, Nika dresses up in a bear costume to make it to the Berlin zoo and that’s how he crosses the border with Thoma. The bear costume is a creation of a property master, a friend of Nika’s. You should have been concerned about the possibilities of how to make it as real as possible, am I right?

Z.B.: Initially, we thought we’d make a pact with a viewer like only the filmmakers, two main characters plus the audiences know that it is a costume. Then we had to tackle purely practical problems.  With due respect to Bortko and his “Master and Margarita” our bear shouldn’t have looked like his Behemoth. I mean, it should have been either shrewdly made costume or computer generated animal but we literally needed to make a SG bear look alive on a screen. It’s not the screenplay but in the film when NIko puts on a bear costume for the first time and looks into the mirror it’s CG bear what he sees. The idea was prompted by the screenplay itself. When Sonya looks and NIka the bear for the first time she utters – “berserk!”  – and it pushed us to the sudden understanding of the fact that NIka is not a man dressed in a bear costume but he is half man, half animal.

U.W.: Every time people mention your project they never forget to, often in desbelief, mention Kate Blanchet’s name whom you invited to play Sonya. Why her?

Z.B.:  Because she’s perfect for the role.  Actually, it was her we were thinking about while working on a screenplay. We sent an English version of the script to her agent and she liked it a lot. On the other hand, it’s not all clear with her schedule yet unlike us for we are definitely starting in June-July of 2012.

U.W.: Thoma is played by Bogdan Beniuk, Ukrainian actor. There’s some Svejk qualities to Thoma’s character indeed and Beniuk played Svejk on stage at Ivan Franko theatre. Was that exactly because you picked him as Thoma?

Z.B.: Frankly speaking I had no idea of who he was during the writing process but I agree, Thoma’s character bears both, Svejk’s and Sanch’s features and I was delighted to meet Beniuk for he seems an ideal choice.

U.W.: The main characters of the film start their adventure in Georgia and travel through Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. Where do you plan to shoot all the scenes taking place in those countries?

Z.B.: Ukraine is going to be the location for the scenes taking place in the East Europe. We’ll be shooting in Rakhov that’s in the Carpathian, and in Kiev. Turkey and Georgia we’ll shoot in Georgia; Berlin in Berlin without any doubt. The thing is that the main characters are taking highways and the only real place they get in Europe is Petrichi, the rest is fictional like that place in Turkey that bear the bear name.

U.W.: The civil war scenes will be shoot in Tbilisi plus I heard you were living in Tbilisi during the unrest times there.

ZAZA BUADZE – Georgian screenwriter and director. Graduated the Tbilisi State University, department of oriental languages (Persian language and literature) and the so-called Higher Director’s Courses in Moscow. He made a number of short features in late 80ies. In 1994, he made a documentary, – “The Batumi War.” He directed “Coffee and Bear” series at the IMEDI TV Channel (five seasons). He co-wrote Veit Helmer’s internationally acclaimed “Absurdistan.”

OTAR SHAMATAVA – Georgian director and producer. Graduated Tbilisi Academy of Fine Arts (department of Architecture) and Georgia’s Film and Theatre Institute. Worked at the IMEDI TV channel as the artistic director. In 18983 he made his first documentary “Nato Vachnadze” about the Georgian silent movie star.  Mr. Shamatave is a member of EMMY. His films won a number of prizes at the international festivals in Portugal and Spain.

SYNOPSIS

Niko, a filmmaker turned soldier taking part in the 1991 civil conflict in Georgia, finds out that all his films were demolished by a fire in a film studio. There he meets Thoma Gogol, a stuntman working at the film studio who also takes care of an abandoned studio bear. With an unintentional help from the side of Niko, Thoma receives the invitation to move the bear from Tbilisi to the Berlin zoo but the animal dies in an accidental shootout generated by drunken soldiers. NIka decides to take its role by dressing in a bear costume and embarks into a long car journey from Tbilisi to Berlin.

BUDGET

Not completely finalized due to not yet available honorarium and computer graphics budget proposals. Meanwhile, the project received the partial financing from Ukraine’s Film Agency amounting to Hryvnia 5,4m, – 30% of the total budget. The remaining 70% comes from the government of Georgia,  Germany and Fresh Production Group(Ukraine). Additional financing is coming from private Georgian investors.

CAST

Invited actors: Kate Blanchet –USA, Bogdan Beniuk – Ukraine, Niko Tovadze – Georgia. Casting continues.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

The film is planned to be shoot with Arri Alexa cameras. Computer generated (computer generated bear, civil war, etc) episodes and postproduction will be performed by two Ukrainian firms involving motion capture technologies.

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