Abandoning its former Russian partner in favor of Europe, Ukrainian television is continuing to make films despite the bombs, its representatives insist as they seek support at Mipcom in Cannes, AFP reports.

“Content is our weapon,” Polina Tolmachova, marketing director of the Ukrainian audiovisual group FILM.UA, told AFP recently in front of the world’s largest market in the sector.

Although he was unable to travel to the Cote d’Azur, dozens of his compatriots are promoting an industry born at the end of the USSR, “young and full of energy” but apparently weakened by the Russian invasion in February.

“None of us was prepared for such an acute crisis,” said Dmytro Troitsky of the Ukrainian media group Starlight Media at a conference in Cannes on Wednesday.

But Ukrainian television – the homeland of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the hero of the series “Servant of the People” – “has accepted the challenge and is doing well.”

The news, common to all channels for the past eight months, was broadcast “without interruptions”, and in Kyiv and in the west of the country, “filming resumed in April”, the presenter said.

The second season of the comedy series “Crazy Neighbors” is currently filming, and the 12th season of the local adaptation of the TV talent show “The Voice”, which was interrupted this winter, has been renewed.

Taken in 2014

Since the beginning of the war in Donbass in 2014, Ukraine has increased the production of local content to provide its channels, which until then were full of Russian programs.

This was a response to public demand and the introduction of quotas for Ukrainian-language formats, Director General of MRM distributor Kateryna Udut told AFP.

In 2021, the country released or produced 116 episodes and can count on a $400 million TV advertising market.

But advertisers have abandoned television, which has been monopolized by news, public funds have been diverted to the army, and many exiled professionals “may never return,” fears Kateryna Udut.

To ensure their survival, the country’s leading producers and broadcasters united under the slogan “Ukrainian content, global cooperation” (UCGC) to promote their know-how worldwide and receive financial support.

They will soon launch the “Ukrainian Content Club”, inviting foreigners to invest in content projects as they wish in exchange for broadcasting rights.

Svoboda / “Those who remained”

“We are not asking for donations, we just want to clearly show that Ukraine is a competitive market, rich in ideas and professionals, that we have something to do,” explained Victoria Yarmoshchuk, Director General of FILM.UA, in Cannes.

Some don’t need much convincing, like the German company Red Arrow Studios, a co-producer with FILM.UA of the upcoming TV series “Those Left Behind”, inspired by the real-life stories of Ukrainians who remained in Kyiv during the conflict.

In addition, the German branch of Gaumont together with Starlight Media will shoot the series “In his car” about the unofficial therapy sessions of a psychologist turned into a passenger carrier, separated from loved ones due to the war.

Opening to Europe is all the more necessary for Ukrainian industry, since it has lost its main sales market in Russia.

“All relations between the former Russian and Ukrainian colleagues have ended,” Larisa Malyukova, an audiovisual expert at Russia’s opposition daily Novaya Gazeta, told AFP.

“Russian content is unthinkable in Ukraine now, but we will not cry about it,” said Polina Tolmachova. “We want to tell our own stories, with our own values, such as freedom.

The Russian audiovisual industry, excluded from this year’s edition of Mipcom, saw many of its titles “bought by big platforms”, according to Larisa Malyukova.

At the same time, some series filmed in Russia are prohibited by censorship, for example, “Comrade Major” (comedy about an FSB officer). Thus, the most daring projects find themselves between a rock and a hard place.