The National Center “Ukrainian House” in Kyiv presented the feature film “The House of the Word. An Endless Romance”, which will be released in wide distribution in Ukraine on May 9. The presentation of the film took place on Wednesday, May 8, and included a preview, a press conference with the participation of the creative team and patrons of the film.

The film was completed in 2021 by the FRESH PRODUCTION GROUP company with the support of the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema and the International Charity Fund “Solidarity” and the Petrovsky family itself. The total budget of the film is 60 million hryvnias. The director of the film is Taras Tomenko, the producers are Yulia Chernyavskaya and Oleg Shcherbina, the authors of the script are Lyubov Yakymchuk and Taras Tomenko.

The world premiere of the Ukrainian film took place in 2021 at the Warsaw Film Festival. But a full-scale war postponed the release of the big screens in Ukraine. In general, the work on the painting took 10 years, and it was only possible to complete it thanks to the partnership assistance of private business.

“We hope that this work will be successful. First of all, it should give both our younger and more mature generation an impetus to study that time,” emphasized Yana Ivanylova, vice president of the Solidarity International Charitable Foundation, which co-financed the production of the picture.

In Ukraine, the film was shown for the first time on June 17, 2022 in Chernivtsi as part of the Nikolaychuk OPEN film festival. The picture received the Best Feature Film award at the Košice International Film Festival in Slovakia in 2022, as well as the Best Feature Film award at the I Will Tell film festival in Florida (USA). On February 24, 2023, a special screening of the film took place in the Seimas of Lithuania on the occasion of the anniversary of the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

The film “Dom Slovo” tells about one of the greatest crimes of Soviet power – the destruction of a powerful artistic movement that arose in the 20s and 30s in Kharkov. The most famous artists of Ukrainian culture – writers, poets, artists, directors – lived in the 66 apartments of the house with the name “Slovo”. The intelligentsia specially gathered in one place during the next few years was repressed, shot or turned into party singers.

“Up to this moment, we have been with the team for 10 years. In fact, even then there was no hope that we would be able to bring the matter to an end. None of the producers wanted to deal with the subject of the executed Vozrozhden. It was not fashionable, not interesting,” said director Taras Tomenko.

Anzhelika Petrovskaya, a representative of the Petrovsky family, called the premiere an important event for Ukrainian cinema. “We are very worried. We are confident that this film cannot fail to affect everyone. He must like it. I watched his breathing, I couldn’t even tear myself away from the screen and felt every minute. This film was lying on the shelf for a long time, waiting for its patron, a person who had heard, who would help him make it happen. I am proud that my family took part in this. The most terrible thing for a film of this level is not to be finished. He must show everything to his viewer, find his viewer.”

The producers and the director assembled a stellar cast for the film.

The main roles in the film were played by Dmitry Oleynyk (Vladimir Akimov), Vyacheslav Dovzhenko (Nikolai Volnovoi), Nina Naboka (Aunt Varya), Marina Koshkina (Galya), as well as Stanislav Suknenko (Les Kurbas), Yuri Odinoky (Merer), Valery Khodos ( Raya Troyanker), Andrei Mai (Vladimir Sosyura), Yulia Chepurko (Maria Sosyura), Konstantin Temlyak (Pavel Tychyna), Gennady Popenko (Mikhail Semenko).

Among the participants of the event were film director Taras Tomenko, screenwriter Lyubov Yakymchuk, director of photography Mikhail Lyubarsky, actors Vyacheslav Dovzhenko, Dmitry Oleinyk, Marina Koshkina, Yevgeny Lamakh, Yulia Chepurko, Gennady Popenko, the musical group “NAZVA”, which gave a performance to the audience. The guests of the presentation were also offered to participate in the collection of books for the “Book on the Front” and “I want to read” charity funds, donating a tome of any Ukrainian author.