Exclusive interview of Agnieszka Holland to Ukrainian media ‘MediaNanny’ about “Gareth Jones” movie
Translated by JamesNortonWeb / Norton-addiction fan groups.
🤚 Along of high volume of the whole text, there is a part of it which, in my view, will be the most fascinating for English speaking people who waits for the new film with James Norton. The film is about Gareth Jones who made something out of the ordinary for my motherland, Ukraine. If I receive authorization to publish the whole text in English I'll give it to you with a great pleasure. Natalia Fefelova
I suppose we can see some kind of a historical injustice in the last twenty years: we know so much facts about the Holocaust thanks for popular media organizations, films, TV dramas, but the history of the Stalin's regime is totally untold for some reason. Of course the world was shocked when Solzhenitsyn's and Vasylii Grossman's books were published – without any doubt these books changed public opinion in 1970-80s. But after that time the Stalin's regime was left behind one way or the other: no films, no TV dramas, nothing can make it widely known among the international audience. Even Russians while shooting some stories about this period made adaptations on Solzhenitsyn and Grossman but have found no way to tell the story one-size-fits-all, to be understandable for all people. I'm no saying I'll be successful in that (laughing). I just hope I will.
When I've read the plot I felt the author's point of view is very timely: I mean Gareth Jones' point of view, the way how he brought to light the fact of famine, how he disclosed the origin of the Soviet system and it's downsides. Then about how he tried to tell the story to the world and what reactions of main media organizations, who made alternative truth and fake news, came after that, what was a reaction of politics from the West who didn't want to know awkward history.
The same situation is close to our world where the politics manage people minds and where nationalism and indifference to tragedies of others coexist – for example, Syria events. Nowadays we can see how it's easy to manipulate the truth if mass media follows politics more than facts. I suppose Gareth Jones' story and history of Ukrainian famine are another way to tell about our todays experience.
- There are Gareth Jones, and George Orwell, and many others based on real people characters in the film. How did you come down to the point of casting on historical characters?
I've shoot some historical films based on a real life story and I clearly see I'm as a director not interested in documentary dramas or films. I afford myself an opportunity to be free to add some facts and fiction characters. But it's important for me to hold true to the ideals which provides the basis of the story, I can't manipulate basic foundation of meanings and sense.
We don't know what kind of person Gareth was in a real life, all we have is some descriptions, his diaries and his published articles. We can't say correct he was joyful or serious, meticulous or cynical, idealistic or naive... We know he was a man of good education, cherished an idea of truth and actually he was a man of courage. His temper was the thing we should create with an actor. Gareth Jones died young and only a few people kept memories about him. So our work is in some measure recreation of his personality from sketches. Walter Duranty is an important character too, antagonist who manipulated the truth easily and, as a result, influenced greatly on politic relationships between USA ans Soviets, and we know about him much more facts. He is played by a very talented actor Peter Sarsgaard. I hope he'll find a way to show the character not a comic villain like Joker from the Batman but a human with reservations and his own reasons to commit acts he did.
Speaking about Orwell, he appears as a symbolic character. The writer mentioned his meeting with Gareth but we have no evidences, and probably the meeting was not happened at all. However they were men of the same social circle, of the same age and same friends, and they were cut from the same cloth and lived at the same time. We know for sure the story about famine in Ukraine was one of the origins and inspirations for the Animal Farm. This story arc is exactly the thing connecting all arcs on thematic and meaning levels.
Other characters are largely fictional: journalists, mandarins, and, of course, Ada Brooks – her figure combines a couple of women journalists of that times, especially Rya Clayman and a woman with whom Gareth had close relations in Moscow. Vanessa Kirby will play the role and bring her special light in the story.
- What shooting locations you've looked for in Ukraine and what places were fixed upon?
The most important for us was to find Ukrainian countryside looking like it's from 30s. We settled on Leonovka and it already looks like a field cinema studio – so many films are shooting here but it looks very natural. People live in it and we even meet an old woman who remembers Holodomor. That meeting was particularly touching for me.
Photo from James Norton’s instagram
Also we found some places in Kyiv, in a remote area, and some panoramas. But most of the street shoots were taken in Kharkiv, in an area with Stalin's houses.
Photo of shooting in Kharkiv from Russian-speaking fan group Norton-addiction on vk.com
Other locations are in Poland and Great Britain, specific in Scotland. Poland will “play” Moscow and in Scotland we will shoot scenes which took place in London and Wales.
- What will be the language of the film? How do you overcome a language barrier during a shooting process?
The film will be in English, except some scenes in Russian or Ukrainian. Gareth studied Russian in the university and, on the words of people who knew him, he spoke Russian fluently. But I truly sure he couldn't speak Ukrainian. The actor who plays the character – James Norton – studies Russian with a private teacher, a Warsaw cinema school student, who helps us with translations in Ukraine.
James has already played Russian in a TV drama McMafia, and of course you can remember him as Andrey Bolkonsky in War and Peace. It's interesting that there is not a problem for him to learn by heart a couple of phrases in Russian, but to play solid Wales accent causes more difficulties”.
Original text: https://mediananny.com/intervju/2327838/
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