Malevych
Date:
January 9, 2023
Malevych
Logline
What stands behind the Black Square, painted in 1915 by the obsessive artist Kazymyr Malevych? For his competitors, a fraud, for the Soviet regime, a secret code, for one woman, a love letter, for the people of Ukraine – a prophecy…
Synopsis
Green Square 1922. East of Ukraine. Solomya, 20, is living in a village with her mother. She is happy as her boyfriend Sashko, 25, comes from the frontline and spends a few days with her. As they play around with Sashko’s night vision device Solomya notices that The Black Square, a reproduction of the famous painting by Malevych in her room, is shining in the darkness. Solomya is mystifying the story around the Black Square and doesn’t know that the history of her family relates to the avant-garde artist.
Black Square 1915. Russian Empire. Kazymyr Malevych, 32, ambitious artist, born and grown up in Ukraine, has moved to Moscow. He meets a constructivist Vladimir Tatlin, 21. They dream of saying a new word in art and become fierce rivals. They have common dream to get to Paris to meet Pablo Picasso. Malevich is trying to create his own style of painting Suprematism. The world-famous exhibition 0.10 in Petersburg becomes a decisive moment – Malevich presents his mysterious painting “The Black Square”.
White Square 1925. USSR. Malevych and Tatlin both teach at the Vitjebsk Art School, directed by Marc Chagall, 35. While Tatlin and Malevych continue their rivalry, NKVD agent Stjepan, 55, is instructed to destroy the avant-garde and subdue the artists. As Malevych receives a permission for a long-awaited trip abroad, Stjepan gets an opportunity to accuse Malevych of spying and arrests him.
Red Square 1932. Malevych and Tatlin work in Kyiv. Malevych believes that art should be outside of politics, but visiting Ukrainian village, Malevich sees the “Holodomor” famine with his own eyes. He dares to portray the “Holodomor” in his works. Stjepan with NKVD officers come with a search to the Art Institute. Tatlin tries to avoid the confiscation of Malevich’s paintings and starts a fight. NKVD officers arrest Tatlin. Malevych decides to use “Letatlin” – Tatlin’s flying apparat to stop the NKVD. Free artists manage to fly at any times and under any regimes, so does Malevych!
Director’s Profile
Daria Onyshchenko Gold/Director/Screenwriter Daria Onyshchenko was born in Kiev, Ukraine. In 2000 she began studying communication, PR and international journalism at the Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev, where she graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor Degree in Public and International Relations. Between 2003-2004 she gained her first experience as a theater director at the Karpenko Karuj Theater Institute in Kiev. From 2006 to 2013, she has been studying feature film directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich, wrote , directed and produced a number of scripts and award-winning short films. In 2014 she completed her studies with the feature film “Eastalgia”. The film opened in the same year the 46th International Hof Film Festival, and was screened at more than 20 film festivals worldwide, winning many prizes. Daria is the member of the German directors’ agency “Above the Line” and member of the Ukrainian Film Academy. Since 2016 Daria has been working as a screenwriter for a number of film productions, among them “435 Films”, Ukraine, “Lehmann Sisters”, Switzerland, “Directory Films”, Ukraine. Her last screenplay
“Golden Loaf” was the winner of the American USAID social-media contest in 2019 in Kyiv.
2017 Daria started to develop her second feature film “The Forgotten” together with the swiss producer Claudia Lehmann, “Lehmann Sisters”, Zürich and Ukrainian producer Igor Savychenko “Directory Films”. “The Forgotten” started it’s festival career with the premiere in the competition of the 35th Warsaw International Film Festival in October 2019. “The Forgotten” got it’s first prizes at Odessa International Film Festival, as the
“project with the biggest international potential” in Work in Progress, was awarded with Special Jury Mention after it’s premiere at Warsaw IFF, etc., best Actors and best Film at the Avanaca IFF, Ukrainian “Oscar”, Zolota Dziga for the best actress in Ukraine, etc…2022, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, Daria was going to start the shooting of her third feature film MALEVYCH, historical biopic about the life and work of the famous Ukrainian Polish painter Kazymyr Malevych . The shooting has been postponed due to war. The script, written by Daria was the member of the MidPointScreenlab 2021. August, September and October 2022 Daria spent in Ukraine and managed to shoot her third feature project under war conditions. At the moment the shooting is finished and the project goes into post-production. In between Daria works also for German TV stations. Her last project “Himmel-und-Erde” by ZDF is a successful mini-series, telling a story of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.
Company Profile
‘435 FILMS’ production company was founded in 2009 and works in the field of production of feature & documentary films, and narrative documentary podcasts. The main goal of 435 FILMS has always been to create projects with social value and a message that works towards reunification and finessing proactive civil society. We concentrate on movies with high artistic value and like to open new talents for the international film market. We believe in the magic of cinema!
Our documentary and feature films premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, KVIFF, TIFF, IDFA, etc. Our filmography includes the full-length drama ‘Eastalgia’ directed by Daria Onyshchenko, the documentary ‘Mariupolis’ by Mantas Kvedaravicius, and ‘Close relations’ by Vitaliy Manskiy, dystopia ‘Numbers’ directed by Oleg Sentsov in person behind the Russian jail, and co-directed by Akhtem Seitablayev, and others. In 2016, 435 FILMS was the first Ukrainian production company to provide film service for an Indian film in Ukraine. Furthermore, we accomplished the production support of 6 Indian projects [including ‘RRR’ a full-length action drama by the outstanding Indian filmmaker S.S. Rajamoli].
After the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, 435 FILMS worked with ARTE, TVN, Discovery, and ARD1 TV channels, and shoot the documentary film and reports about the war in Ukraine as well as finished the shooting of “Malevych”, by Daria Onyshchenko in autumn 2022.