The Head of the Kyiv Cinema for the first time told how the raider seizure of the premises took place

07.07.2020

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Vilia Bondarenko with Fanny Ardan at the Kyiv Cinema | Image taken from Bondarenko’s home archive

Vilia Bondarenko, Head of the Kyiv Cinema Cultural Center, Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine, told the agency in an interview how her creative team resumed the work of the decaying cultural center in the 2000s, reconstructed the building with credit funds, developed international relations, and then was left on the street without premises and documents. According to Ms. Bondarenko, her team took out loans to renovate the premises, spent 20 years developing a repertoire and connections, and then were denied an extended lease for premises in the center of Kyiv without good reason.

– How was the Kyiv Cinema Cultural Center created?

– I was appointed Head of the Kyiv Cinema in 2000. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the cinema was in decline: in the 1990s, the premises were rented out to various companies far from the arts, and the technical condition of the building was highly unsatisfactory. So, the company first started with a significant overhaul of the building. It turned out to be the first one in half a century since the cinema opened.

The repair work was carried out along with restoration work to preserve the architectural style of the cinema beloved by Kyiv residents. Without exaggeration, our team raised “Kyiv” from the ruins and brought it back to life. You can see with your own eyes in these photos what the Kyiv Cinema Cultural Center LTD. has done in this direction.

Photos of the Kyiv premises before renovation in the 2000s |
Image taken from the CCs Facebook page

After extensive renovations, film screenings resumed in March 2002 in the Red Hall and in January 2003 in the Blue Hall. Later, in early 2007, we opened another hall, the Cinematheque. All the repair and restoration work was done exclusively by the Association. We took out bank loans (seven in total) for about UAH 60 million. The cinema was equipped with the latest digital technologies and high standards. Thanks to the team’s professionalism, hard work, and inspiration, we have formed ourown audience and an original repertoire policy that distinguished the cinema from others. We have ade the cinema a cultural and festival center of the capital, a platform for screening non-commercial and rt house films. Throughout our activity, the team has been in dialogue with our audience, we have always listened to advice and criticism but have never changed our minds. We have also been continuously implementing a vital function for developing and strengthening Ukrainian statehood – supporting national cinema.

I can safely say that the Kyiv Cinema Cultural Center is the Association’s own brand. I would like to note that the management of the new tenant of the cinema, Cinema Center, has brazenly stated that they will take our program concept, which has been developed over the years and will work according to it. To confirm my words about the professionalism of the staff, I would like to add that in January 2007, the Cultural Center was accepted as a member of the international organization Europa Cinemas, which includes the best cinemas in Europe, Latin America, and French-speaking Africa. I would like to emphasize that the Kyiv Cinema Cultural Center has not received any material investments or assistance from the city over the 20 years of its existence. That is why the words of Diana Popova, Head of the Department of Culture at the Kyiv City State Administration, Volodymyr Slonchak, now a former Deputy Mayor of Kyiv, and Vitali Klytschko himself, sound incredibly cynical and blatantly false, saying that we have been operating the building for years without investing a single penny in it and that the new tenant, the Cinema-Center company, received the building in a state of disrepair.

– What events did the Kyiv Cinema Center hold in the cinema building?

– Since 2002, when the Kyiv Cinema was born, our team has successfully established cooperation with all foreign embassies accredited in Ukraine, cultural centers at them, domestic distribution companies, organizers of film and other national and international art festivals, the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center, and cultural foundations. Our repertoire included projects that satisfied the most demanding tastes of the audience, such as “British Theater in Cinema”, “Exhibition on Screen”, “Opera in Cinema”, “Ballet in Cinema”, many documentaries, and film clubs with native speakers.

During the festival screenings (we organized almost 500! of them during our creative activity), the audience could watch on the big screen art house, auteur, and documentary films that won numerous awards at prestigious international festivals but which are not widely distributed in Ukraine. There were also retrospectives of national and foreign film masterpieces, famous directors and actors, and creative meetings with film crews. It’s impossible to list everything!

One of the pleasant moments. At the beginning of this year, my friend, a director, returned from France and brought me and the cinema staff a greeting from Fanny Ardant. We hosted her in the 2000s.

The cinema became the main location for the largest film forum in Eastern Europe, the Molodist Film Festival.

We have always worked in tandem in organizing the program content. I would like to say a lot of warm words to the Molodist Film Festival for the years of successful partnership and the joy of communicating with like-minded people. Speaking about the team, I cannot avoid mentioning its educational and social activities. We have established partnerships with many schools and universities in the capital. For example, our «neighbors», students and teachers of the Kyiv National Linguistic University, have been conducting weekly workshops for years.

Often, we organized movie screenings to meet the needs and wishes of students and faculty, aimed at improving the learning of educational material and the socio-cultural component. They were given large discounts on tickets or free invitations.

We were aware of the undoubtedly great importance of promoting cultural and aesthetic values among the younger generation.

I have bitter memories about this: during one such charity show for orphans, the Cultural Center was raided on June 7th a year ago. Then fifty armed men from the Municipal Guard organization, following the order of the mayor, with the support of the departments of municipal property and culture of the Kyiv City State Administration stopped the screening, took the children out and seized the building.

Thus, the cultural space created by the Association, with the inspiring support of the audience, has become a visiting card of the capital and, I’m not afraid to use this comparison, of the state – for city guests and official foreign delegations. For two decades, we have been working with dignity for the cultural image of Kyiv and Ukraine. In my office, to which I have no access after the raider seizure of the Kyiv City State Administration, there are a huge number of letters of gratitude to the Association, awards for our work, anniversary awards from embassies, cultural institutions, Ukrainian and international festivals, and people from the film industry.

But the most important thing that has always pleased our eyes and souls is the crowded auditoriums and the unwavering interest in all our events and projects.

It is an indescribable pity that all this has been leveled by the mayor and his entourage. The words of Mr. Klytschko in an interview with Matvey Ganapolsky in January 2019 are worthy of note: «There are five halls there (while there are three – V. Bondarenko), a billiard room, a snack bar, everything is there, but there is not enough cinema». What is this – ignorance, incompetence of the mayor, unwillingness to see our achievements, or a bold, outright lie?!

– When did you first learn that they were planning to give the cinema building to another tenant? Did the city authorities have any reason to deprive the staff of the Kyiv Cinema Center of this building?

– On October 3rd, 2018, three months before the end of the lease agreement, we registered a letter with the Kyiv City State Administration requesting to extend the lease. We did not receive a response within the statutory period. The officials were silent. Later, after the lease was over, they began to tell the community that they had sent us letters refusing to rent, that we were allegedly hiding this fact to protect ourselves. But during the court hearings at the Pechersk Economic Court, the Cultural Center proved that it had not received any letters from the Kyiv City State Administration: inquiries from the Main Post Office showed that the mayor’s office had sent letters, but not to our address, but to non- existent ones, as they say, «just for show». Their motive was obvious: not to give us a timely response, to deprive us of time to fight.

Events of June 7th, 2019

So, let’s go back to the events of the end of 2018. Being very concerned about the lack of response, I met with the heads of the departments of culture and municipal property and heard the following answer: «We will not extend the lease to the Association». I asked Ms. Popova: «Why? Did we fail to execute something under the contract?» The Head of the department answered me: «No, you have done everything mentioned in the contract. The city just needs the premises!»…

I will not repeat after the lawyers the commonplace truths about the priority right to rent to bona fide tenants, and in our case, those who have invested millions of hryvnias over the years in repair, restoration, maintenance, and preservation of the property complex. By law, the state must provide guarantees to such tenants. The Kyiv City State Administration went its own way, bypassing the law. At first, the mayor’s office announced that it was transferring the property complex to the Kyivkinofilm public utility. Imagine that 20 years ago, the cinema was withdrawn from its structure, and now, significant repairs and restoration by our team, and the repertoire we have developed over the years, the mayor’s office transfers a ready-made successful project to the balance sheet of a municipal enterprise that has failed to do so!

Then they went further: they started spreading false information and manipulating public opinion. The main argument against the Association was, in their opinion, the extremely low rental rate, and we heard everywhere that "the previous tenant paid UAH 47,000 per month, and we will find a more efficient tenant for the city." First of all, the UAH 47,000 rental rate was set by the city hall itself when the lease agreement was signed in 2009. What is our fault? Did we have to go to the officials ourselves and ask them to revise the existing agreement? This is their task…

Secondly, together with the subtenants, we paid the city 270,000 hryvnias every month, and if we take into account all the taxes under various items, Kyiv received about 600-700 thousand hryvnias a month!

So, we asked to recalculate the rental rate for a new term at a fair price of approximately 550 thousand hryvnias per month. In response, we heard: «No. We will find a new tenant. We will not work with you». As you can see, at the «open bidding for the cinema», as the mayor put it after the auction, the mayor’s office found a company that offered a fabulous sum of UAH 2.5 million per month. But in fact, three months later, the new tenant asked to reduce the rental rate to the same 550,000 hryvnias, and two months later, the Department of Communal Property arbitrarily and, most importantly, illegally released the Cinema Center from paying rent.

Since December 1st, 2019, the city has not received a single penny in its budget! The new tenant announced that the building was in a state of disrepair. I recall Ms. Popova’s words a year ago: «We cannot even imagine that our Kyiv will not work foreven a day…»

The story of how the Kyiv authorities tried to expel the staff from the House of Actor: «We found out the plans of the Kyiv City State Administration for the House of Actor: eviction of actors, repair of the facade and renting it out to commercialists».