Starting my research on the subject of Ukraine and its people in American media I had already realized that it won't be an easy search. I knew that my beloved Motherland was rarely mentioned in American media before the Ukrainian crises. So, I was really surprised to find a Hollywood movie that is set in Ukraine.
"Everything
is Illuminated" is an adaptation of the autobiographical novel with the
same title written by Johnathan Foer. It is directed by Liev Schreiber and
starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hutz. "Everything is Illuminated"
tells a story of a young Jewish American who comes to Ukraine in order to find
the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II.
Although the movie is mostly about the Jewish
people and the protagonist isn't Ukrainian himself, it introduces Ukraine to a viewer. So, after watching "Everything is Illuminated" an average
American who knows almost nothing about Ukraine would be able to imagine what
Ukraine looks like and what kind of people live there. Unfortunately, this image
is not going to be the positive one.
I think that the movie deserves a title of ‘a collection of stereotypes about Ukraine'. It
shows Ukraine as a country with a lot of dilapidated buildings, very poor
tourist infrastructure and high crime level.
The reasons of such a miserable conditions of life become clear when the viewer acquainted himself with the
Ukrainian people. At this point scenarists of the movie surpassed themselves
in following the preconceptions and not referring to the historical truth. For
example, while history tells that Ukrainians risked their lives hiding the
Jewish people from Nazists during the World War II, in the movie they are
represented as an anti-Semites.
What's
more, Ukrainians that are depicted in the film not only hate Jews, but they
also don't like their fellow countrymen. People from the Western Ukraine are
very aggressive towards people from Kyiv and Odessa or towards any Russian-speaking
person in general.
In
addition, it appears that Ukrainians eat enormous amount
of meat, think about vegetarians as a crazy people, don't familiar with the
concept of political correctness and always wait for perfect moment to steal something
from the foreigners. And how could I possibly live all these years among such a terrible people without noticing it?!
During the
whole film viewer may notice the only one good thing about Ukraine. It is a
large number of beautiful Ukrainian landscapes. All these sunflower fields,
forest roads and country views look so gorgeous that it's impossible not to
fall in love with them. However, all these stunning views are not really Ukrainian.
Actually, they were filmed in Czech Republic.
Sadly as it may be, I must admit that the movie made its contribution to the development of the stereotypical image of Ukraine. Nevertheless, I still
hope that one day Hollywood will make the movie that will represent my
Motherland not as the poor and uncivilized country inhabited by uneducated
racists, but will show Ukraine as it really is.
