Donetsk, Dec 24 - DAN. They shot the feature film “Intent” in the Donetsk People’s Republic and ran it in many towns in Russia and the Czech Republic, and now they are building their own studio at a fantastic rate. The Donfilm group’s ambition is to achieve what others have never been able to accomplish, namely turn Donbass into a film-making centre.
The arthouse film “Intent” was screened in 2019 and has been available on YouTube since 2020. The views count reached 2.5 million. “Intent” rather looks like a post-modernist fairy-tale puzzle. It is a story of a boy’s journey to a higher plane of existence where he watches the struggle of notions that govern our routine life on Earth. Donfilm founder Dmitry Zodchiy who authored and directed “Intent” defines its genre as “trickster film.“
Enthusiasts shot the film without the assistance of government bodies or commercial companies using Zodchiy’s money. Viewers helped launch the construction of the first film studio in the DPR following a money raising action on the Donfilm website. The construction site is located in the outskirts of the town of Shakhtyorsk in the eastern part of the Republic. The work on the main building and adjacent pavilions is nearing completion.
Donfilm participants hope that a village with its own infrastructure will spring up in the area in the future. It will include a park, a children’s playground, a cinema house, a concert stage , a store and houses for the staff and studio guests. It will also accommodate shops to produce costumes, stage sets and props. The immediate plans are to create prerequisites for shooting a second film. According to Dmitry Zodchiy, it might begin as early as the first half of 2022.
Find more information on the Donfilm studio and the Donbass film production timeline in the Russian language version of the Donetsk News Agency. *jk