The first big role in a feature film became a challenge for the young actor
On May 9, director Taras Tomenko’s film “The Slovo House” will be released in national cinemas.. An Unfinished Romance”, in which actor Dmitry Oleynik played the main antagonist – a secret NKVD officer in the Ukrainian creative circle, who would later go down in history under the name “Executed Revival”. How the film was shot, how it was necessary to prepare for the role and who wrote denunciations against colleagues in the creative workshop – the actor told Telegraph about this and much more.
“I wanted the film not to be mothballs”
— Dmitry, the film “The Word House” was filmed six years ago. Much has probably already been forgotten. What comes to mind when you remember that period?
— The film began filming in 2018, then there was a break of almost two years, and the last days of filming took place in 2020. I remember the main task of our creative team. Since the film features historical figures – writers, poets, prose writers, artists, actors and directors, whom we know from books – show them as living people, that they are not monuments, not stencils from textbooks. They also had everyday problems, fell in love and committed not only positive, but also negative actions. I wanted the film not to be mothball-like, as we usually imagine that era to be – the 20-30s of the last century.
— How did you prepare for the role? Have you read any additional materials other than the script, or consulted the archives? What interesting and unexpected facts did you find and discover during this process?
— The main discovery for me was the information about the existence of such a house “Slovo”, where creative personalities of Ukraine lived and worked under one roof – Sosyura, Tychyna, Kurbas, Khvylevoy and others. This discovery prompted me to search in this direction, because I wanted to dive deeper into the context of events. I watched the documentary “House of the Word”, and on the advice of director Tomenko, in order to better understand and embody my fictional character, I read Valeryan Pidmogilny’s novel “The City”.
Despite the fact that I played a fictional creature (there is no other way to call him) NKVD member Vladimir Akimov, this surname actually belonged to the murderer, who particularly distinguished himself on Solovki. This is a recorded fact. What was also striking was that among the Ukrainian writers of the Executed Revival there were real traitors who wrote denunciations against their colleagues. For example, this is exactly what the writer Yuri Smolich was like, who collaborated with the NKVD under the agent pseudonym “Strela”. This is also a confirmed fact.
— Your fictional character, Vladimir Akimov, is not only an NKVD member, but also a writer. In your life, a creative process in the form of writing is inherent – do you write prose or poetry?
— I wrote my last poem when I was 20 years old.. Unfortunately, there is no ability to do this. I direct all my talent to acting…
“I have negative energy as an actor.”
— Was any of your relatives repressed and went through Soviet dungeons?
– Fortunately, no one. My paternal grandparents met and worked in Crimea. And, on the contrary, they were supporters of Soviet power. My mother’s parents are from the West of Ukraine and lived in Romania until 1940. By the way, my paternal grandfather is also from the Chernivtsi region, and he shared negative memories of his Romanian childhood. They all belonged to the working class, probably, such a life suited them, or they simply had no choice. Perhaps if they had chosen creative professions – who knows, then they could certainly have fallen into the heat of repression because of their freedom-loving views.
— Perhaps one of your relatives (in any tribe) served in the NKVD or was a commissar in the Cheka?
— I checked with my father about my grandfather. Grandfather worked in the Crimea in the vineyards, was a foreman. Then he began working at a cannery where juice was produced, and rose to the rank of head of the raw materials department.
Grandma was also a foreman, then an accountant, and then a caretaker in a kindergarten. So they didn’t have any too big positions. I have to disappoint you – there was no one in the NKVD.
— I can’t even believe that, without having NKVD members at the genetic level, you played a security officer-spy so convincingly…
– Thank you. Probably, as an actor, I have some kind of negative energy… Although, as soon as I got into the theater, I played positive characters, bright boys. Apparently, director Taras Tomenko saw that I was not so fluffy.
In embodying the image of Akimov, I came from within, but this does not mean that in life I am capable of committing similar bad deeds.
Now he has already played a number of negative characters in the theater, the embodiment of total evil. I have already seen the film “The Word House”, and it seems to me that now some moments would have been played differently. It was my first big role in a feature film.. And this was a challenge for me.
Marauders “ruled” a Crimean house
—You have a famous Ukrainian surname. Which of the outstanding Oleyniks is your relative – maybe the poet Boris Oleynik or the actors Nikolai and Evgeniy Oleynik?
– No, none of the outstanding Oleyniks are my relatives. (Laughs.) Although we met Boris Oleynik live. In 2014, he visited the Golden Gate Museum, where we showed the play “Yaroslav the Wise” directed by Valery Patsunov, in which I played one of the roles. I know that somewhere on the Internet there is a photo of us together from that event.
— You were born in Crimea, and then moved to the Chernivtsi region. Did you visit the peninsula after the occupation?
— The last time I was in Crimea was in 2013. Came to my grandfather's funeral. His house and small farm remained there.. Although the neighbors tried to somehow look after them, everyone has their own things to do. I know that looters were in charge there; now the windows and doors are boarded up. It's probably all abandoned now.
— What exactly do you miss from Crimea the most?
— We lived in a village 40 km from Dzhankoy, quite far from the sea. Most often I remember my grandfather’s house and the big nut in the yard, where I spent my carefree childhood.
The time will come to take up arms
— During martial law in Ukraine, you traveled abroad, where you participated in performances. Did the feelings with which you crossed the border under these conditions differ from those when you went on vacation carefree?
— Feelings were mixed. Firstly, I didn’t want to leave the country in such difficult times, because there is an understanding that I am needed here, especially since many of my colleagues took up arms and began to defend the Motherland. And secondly, I was aware that we were going abroad not for a walk, but to tell Europeans about the war and what has been happening in Ukraine since 2014.
For example, I found out that many Europeans did not perceive Ukraine as a separate state, they considered it part of Russia. But we showed them that we are a distinctive nation with our own unique culture and history.
— Do you, as an artist, have a deferment from mobilization? In general, are there any reservations for creative individuals?
— I know that some theaters have the opportunity to book 50% of the men working there. But I don't have that kind of armor. I understand that the time will come, and I will also take up arms.
— Regarding the situation with the director and now former artistic director of the Kiev Theater on the Left Bank of the Dnieper Stas Zhirkov. After the start of a full-scale invasion, he left Ukraine and, in fact, abandoned the team to the mercy of fate. Stas tried to keep his post from abroad. Do you think that under such circumstances, even such a worthy director has the right to perform his duties remotely?
— You can have different attitudes towards Stas Zhirkov and his activities. But since the full-scale invasion, he and the theater team organized a tour in six countries with the play “Bad Roads” directed by Toma Trunova, part of the theater team had the opportunity to work in Riga on the play “There’s something wrong with this performance,” which is now in repertoire of the Theater on the Left Bank, so I think that the statement “left the team to the mercy of fate” is not entirely correct. Of course, it is impossible to manage a theater remotely. Stas wrote a letter of resignation in the fall of 2022. Now the theater is headed by Olesya Zhurakovskaya ( she has been working at the Kiev Academic Drama and Comedy Theater on the Left Bank of the Dnieper since 2002. – Auth. ).
— One of the contenders for this post was the director and daughter of actors Ada Rogovtseva and Konstantin Stepankov. Why is Olesya Zhurakovskaya better as an artistic director than Ekaterina Stepankova?
— As an actor, I have never collaborated with Ekaterina. That's why I can't say anything about her at all.. But the majority of the theater staff supported Olesya Viktorovna.
I think that the choice is obvious and understandable.
— Are salaries paid in the theater on time and in full now?
— Since the beginning of the full-scale war, there have been some problems with payments in the theater. But these problems began during COVID-19, when the theater was on pause for some time.. As far as I understand, the situation with delays was not the initiative of the theater, but rather state underfunding. Now the situation has changed – we receive our salaries on time.
— Dmitry, are you satisfied with how your creative career is developing in these turbulent times?
— I view the success of my career not through the prism of fame, popularity and financial component. I regard this solely from the angle of personal and professional development.. In recent years, terrible things have happened to us, we have gained difficult experience, but despite this, I consider myself a happy actor, because I work with experienced, talented colleagues, and had the opportunity to play on famous foreign stages that I could only dream of.
— You are a director by training. Do you still have ambitions to do anything significant in this status?
— I don’t feel the potential and energy for this. I believe that it is better to remain a good actor than to be a mediocre director. That's why you won't see me directing anytime soon.
What is the movie about?
1927. Soviet Ukraine. By order of Stalin, the Slovo cooperative house was built in Kharkov. Outstanding writers are placed in comfortable apartments with the aim of total control over the creative process. Not every one of them agrees to glorify the cult of Stalin. Unexpectedly for the residents of the house, an unknown young writer, Vladimir Akimov, moves in with them. With his appearance in the Slovo house, strange events begin to unfold…
The main roles were played by: Dmitry Oleynik (Vladimir Akimov), Vyacheslav Dovzhenko (Mykola Khvylevoy), Stanislav Suknenko (Les Kurbas), Valeria Khodos (Raya Troyanker), Andrey May (Vladimir Sosyura), Yulia Chepurko (Maria Sosyura), Konstantin (Pavlo Tychina) ), Gennady Popenko (Mikhail Semenko).
Photos courtesy of Dmitry Oleynik