Philip Ilyenko. The last Svoboda member in power

Last week, the State Cinema Committee of Ukraine organized an auction of unprecedented generosity. Money was allocated for seven films. And in total, by the end of the year this state agency is going to finance about forty films. In this regard, the name of the State Agency for Cinematography, Philip Yuryevich Ilyenko, came up. After all, this is very strange, there is essentially no Ukrainian cinema, but there is an agency dealing with its issues. And even finances are allocated for the production of films, but for some reason the ordinary Ukrainian cannot see them either in the cinema or on TV. We tried to understand this situation and answer the question: “Who is Mr. Ilyenko?”

Cinematic childhood and youth

Strange as it may sound, Philip Yuryevich had much more contact with cinema in his childhood than now. He, as an actor, starred in the films “The Legend of Princess Olga”, “Forest Song”, “Swan Lake. Zone” and others. True, he was still a child then and starred in films of his father Yuri Ilyenko and his friends. As a rule, in secondary roles. For example, in the same “Swan Lake” his role is called “The Boy”. He actually comes from a good film family. His late father is the famous director Yuri Ilyenko, his mother is a not so famous actress Lyudmila Efimenko (she starred mainly in her husband’s films), and his uncle is also a fairly famous director Mikhail Ilyenko. All of the above family members and his brother, Andrei Ilyenko, are ardent nationalists and active members of the Svoboda civil society organization. True, they also have unpleasant moments in their biography; they were not always nationalists. For example, his father Yuri Gerasimovich Ilyenko was a member of the CPSU since 1973, and his uncle Mikhail Gerasimovich Ilyenko made his first film “There Away Beyond the River” based on the book “The Youth of Fedya Panko,” which was written by the then head of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR. But in the nineties they became nationalists and ardent champions of Ukrainian culture. Yuri Ilyenko himself joined Svoboda and dragged both of his sons there.

Ilyenko family

Complete “Freedom”

Philip’s brother Andrei Ilyenko was more active in Svoboda, for which he became a deputy. In this nationalist party, Philip Yuryevich was given only 122, an impossible place on the list. So he didn’t get into parliament in 2012 and, in principle, there was no chance of getting into big-time politics. But in 2014, Euromaidan happened and the Svoboda party briefly became one of the ruling parties, which means it had the opportunity to participate in the formation of the executive branch. It was then that the Svoboda members “dragged” Igor Shvaika to the post of head of the agro-industrial complex, Oleg Makhnitsky to the prosecutor general, Andrei Mokhnik to the minister of ecology, and a number of other officials of a lower rank. It was among these petty adventurers, apparently protected by his brother, that Philip Ilyenko was promoted to the position. We will tell you how he got there below. But once in the position, he showed a fairly high ability to adapt and keep his nose to the wind. Judge for yourself, after all, after the 2014 elections, which they failed miserably, all the former “Svoboda” members were driven out of high offices. But not Ilyenko. He is still sitting in his office on Lavrskaya Street and, apparently, is in no hurry to release him.

Philip Ilyenko

History of appearance in Goskino

And he took this office of his with great difficulty and even fighting. The fact is that after the Revolution of Dignity, the political forces that won it immediately began dividing up all possible positions. The then head of Goskino, Ekaterina Kopylova, was an apolitical person, like any normal person involved in cinema, but this did not save her. It was enough that she did not stand at Euromaidan. And its new boss, Evgeniy Nishchuk, stood and even shouted into the microphone; he was the host of the Maidan, for which he received this position. In general, Kopylova was removed from her position, and the question immediately became: who should be appointed? At that time, democracy was in fashion, so representatives of the new government decided to play with the cinematic community. A “fair” competition was announced, to which independent producers applied. Two reached the final: Andrey Donchik and Philipp Ilyenko. It should be noted here that Donchik is very famous in the world of cinema. He was the chief director of the 1+1 TV channel, directed several films, series, television programs, and received prizes at film festivals in Venice and Thessaloniki. At that time, Philip Ilyenko produced only two films, “Prayer for Hetman Mazepa” and “Toloka.” At the same time, “Toloka” is a film by his uncle Mikhail Ilyenko, and it has not yet been filmed. And it turns out that he filmed “Prayer…” at the age of 24, that is, barely graduating from college. How he was allowed to reach the million-dollar budget is not clear. If only they really allowed it, because during the premiere no one knew that Philip Yurievich was its producer. His name mysteriously appeared in the credits immediately before submitting documents for the post of head of Goskino.

Mikhail Ilyenko and Philip Ilyenko

Outraged public

The public entered the game around the election of the head of Goskino, thinking that her opinion was interesting to someone. The whole matter was headed by the head of the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, film critic Sergei Trymbach. Experts were brought in to read the programs of candidates for the position, discuss them, and evaluate them. And we came to a fairly logical conclusion. All programs are good, but in addition to good ideas, their implementation is also needed. But Philip Ilyenko will not be able to do this, since he does not have sufficient experience in filmmaking. And besides, he is a representative of a political force, the Svoboda party, therefore, he is a biased person, acting in the interests of his political bosses, and not in the interests of cinema and art. Filmmakers wanted to see a person equidistant from all political forces in the position of head of Goskino. The Cabinet of Ministers listened carefully to representatives of the most popular of arts, thought and… still appointed Ilyenko to this position. Moreover, it was August 2014, Petro Poroshenko had to announce the dissolution of parliament and early elections. And for this, help was needed, including from Svoboda, which had to formally leave the coalition and give the president the legal opportunity to do this. The public was a little indignant and calmed down. They were mainly outraged by the fact that the authorities staged pseudo-games of democracy and then made a command decision.

How Philip Yurievich “ruled” cinema

Since the time Philip Ilyenko became the head of Goskino, not a single film has been shot in Ukraine, and those that were in production and received partial financing were frozen. He himself says that there is a war, no money is being allocated, and so on. However, leading TV channels and studios have announced that they can finance these projects. On one condition – they will conduct a financial audit of these projects. They are simply ready to invest their own, personal, and not state money there and do not want it to be stolen. As a result, none of the government-funded film companies applied for an audit. And the head of Goskino himself modestly remained silent on this matter and pretended that he could not force them to do this. Moreover, by that time he had mastered a more profitable business – if a movie cannot be made, then it can be… banned. It is the State Cinematography Agency that issues distribution certificates for films or TV series. Without such a certificate, no channel has the right to broadcast a film product. And Philip Yuryevich began to ban popular Russian TV series in batches, even before the appearance of the corresponding law. Moreover, after the statements of Ivan Okhlobystin and the successful shots of Mikhail Porechenkov at the Donetsk airport, public opinion was on his side. And yet, some channels broadcast Russian television products that Ilyenko “did not notice.” So, for example, “Voronins” was shown on the New Channel, about seven Russian television series were shown on TRK Ukraine, and the series “The Investigation Conducted…” was shown on Inter. It is not known exactly how the channels agreed with Goskino, but it is clear that such “absent-mindedness” is quite expensive, although it pays off from advertising.

And so they gave me money for the movie

This year, Philip Ilyenko found himself in the risk zone. The fact is that the Cabinet of Ministers allocated 100 million hryvnia for Ukrainian cinema. And in modern times this is a good amount for any official. There is no real political force behind Philip Yurievich, except for the semi-marginal “Svoboda”, which can, of course, stage a demonstration if he is removed from office, but mass turmoil in Ukraine will not surprise anyone, and they really do not influence public opinion. So, apparently, Ilyenko decided to work according to the principle “what I take right now is mine.” It is clear that money for cinema is allocated for a reason, but for kickbacks. This is indirectly confirmed by the studios’ refusal to audit, mentioned above, and film industry specialists also speak about this. They say that the amount of kickbacks, which was 30% under Kopylova, has sharply increased to 50%. Perhaps this is why Philip Yuryevich began to allocate money at cosmic speed and to just anyone. There are 79 films planned for production on the list. Among the studios that will receive funding this year and next, there is not a single studio that has returned money to the state in the form of profits from the film’s distribution. At best, only part of the money spent on production was returned. Money is given to those who froze production even before the end of funding, and even to those who launched with one budget, and then during filming increased the required budget three to four times. In a word, Philip Ilyenko is in a hurry, in a hurry. Perhaps he feels that in the near future he simply will not be able to withdraw money from cinema.

Denis Ivanov, for SKELET-info