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| Oleh Malamuzh, Oleksandra Ruban: Мавка. Лісова пісня / Mavka: lisova pisnia / Mavka: the Forest Song (UA 2023). |
Мавка. Лісова пісня / Mavka: metsän laulu / Mavka: skogens väktare / Le Royaume de Naya / Maya: Hüterin des Waldes / Maya e la foresta incantata / Mavka: guardiana del bosque.
CGI animation.
UA 2023. PC: Animagrad Animation Studio / FILM.UA Group. P: Iryna Kostiuk, Yehor Olesov, Anna Yelisieieva.
D: Oleh Malamuzh, Oleksandra Ruban. SC: Yaroslav Voitseshek - based on the play Lisova pisnia (1912) by Lesya Ukrainka. 3D animation - scope 1:2,35 - colour - digital. AN: Nataliia Alekseieva. Character designer. Natalia Doroshenko. Storyboard supervisor: Oleh Malamuzh. AD: Kristian Koskinen. M: Dario Vero, Maksym Berezhnyak, DakhaBrakha. S: Yevhenii Prykashchykov.
Original in English.
The contribution of the Ukrainian voice talent as related in Wikipedia: "The animated film was dubbed to the Ukrainian language by the "#skoroukino" studio. The dubbing team: Laiti Biriukova, Dmytro Myalkovskiy; translation - Anna Pashchenko and Alina Haevska. The dubbing producer is Kateryna Braikovska."
Natalka Denysenko as Mavka - Kateryna Kukhar and Taisia Khvostova (movements and plastique) , while Khrystyna Soloviy performs two of Mavka's songs.
Artem Pyvovarov as Lukas
Olena Kravets as Kylina
Serhiy Prytula as Frol
Oleh Mykhailiuta as Leo, Lukas' uncle
Natalya Sumska as the Healer
DakhaBrakha as Lucas’ friends, village musicians Nina, Iryna, Olena and Marko
Mykhailo Khoma as Hush
Julia Sanina as Ondina, a mermaid
Nazar Zadniprovskyi as Lesh
Oleh Skrypka as the One Who Sits in the Rock
Nina Matviienko as the Narrator
Andriy Mostrenko as Erick and Dereck
Kateryna Osadcha as various women
Natalka Denisenko
Artem Pyvovarov
Olena Kravets
Soundtrack:
"Krokovee Koleso" perf. DakhaBrakha, Maksym Berezniuk 1:22
"Mova Vitru" ("Song of the Wind") comp./lyr./perf. Artem Pyvovarov, Khrystyna Soloviy 3:45
"Harnaya" ("Beautiful") perf. Maria Kvitka 3:31
"Vesnyanka" ("Spring Song") DakhaBrakha, Maksym Berezniuk 0:55
"Pisnia Lisu" ("The Forest Song") comp./lyr./perf. Khrystyna Soloviy 3:35
"Sho z pid Dubu" ("What is Under the Oak") comp./lyr./perf. DakhaBrakha 3:48
The collection of the orchestra music for the movie was presented by “Animagrad” studio in May, 2023. The soundtrack was created by the Ukrainian-Italian team. The team consisted of: the symphonic orchestra “Kyiv Virtuosos”, Oksana Mukha and Maksym Berezhniuk, and also Italians Dario Vero, Fabio Patriniani, Federico Solacco, Barbad Bayat and Fabricio De Karolis. The album has got 49 instrumental compositions.
99 min
Ukrainian premiere: 2 March 2023 - distributed by Film.UA Distribution Kinomania.
Finnish premiere in four spoken language versions: Ukrainian, English, Finnish and Swedish, alternatively with Finnish or Swedish subtitles - 2 Aug 2024. Finnish release only in 2D.
Viewed in 2D in the Ukrainian version with Finnish subtitles at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 9, 17 Aug 2024
Previous film adaptations:
- Lisova pisnia (UA-SU 1961) D: Viktor Ivchenko, live action.
- Lisova pisnia (UA-SU 1976) D: Alla Grachova, short animation.
- Lisova pisnia. Mavka / Metsän laulu (UA-SU 1981), live action, PC: Dovzhenko Film Studios, D: Yuri Ilyenko. Telecast in Finland: 27 Nov 1985 Yle TV1.
- Mavka / वनपरी (IN 2021) in Hindi.
Lesya Ukrainka (b. 1871 in Novohrad-Volonskyi, today's Zviahei, Zhytomir Oblast, d. 1913 Surami, Tiflis Governorate, today's Shida Kartli, Georgia). One of Ukraine's foremost writers, poet, playwright, feminist, bisexual and translator of the Communist Manifesto among other books.
International names of Lisova pisnia include Das Waldlied / Canción del bosque / La Chanson de la Forêt and Il canto della foresta.
Official synopsis: "Mavka - a soul of the Forest - faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as guardian to the Heart of the Forest, when she falls in love with a human - the talented young musician Lukash. Our story is about the magical power of love. That kind of love that enables human nature to find the magic within and reveals abilities and qualities that empower a person to reach beyond possible and to hold against evil and human vice."
AA: Oleh Malamuzh and Oleksandra Ruban's engrossing animation Mavka: the Forest Song is my first encounter with the work of Lesya Ukrainka and her fairy-tale play (1912), a living classic as a play, opera, ballet, live action cinema and animation. This newest animation has become the highest grossing film in independent Ukraine. Ukrainka's play has not been translated or staged in Finland, but it should, because its forest mythology strikes a chord in the land of Kalevala.
Neoromanticism and symbolism (Maeterlinck, Debussy) were powerful currents in Ukrainka's days, and nowhere more than in Finland, prominent in the art of Sibelius, Järnefelt, Aho and Linnankoski (The Song of the Scarlet Flower, based on forest mythology). Not forgetting American transcendentalism (Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller) or Tolstoyan-Neo-Rousseauan currents, preceding contemporary ecological awareness.
The Forest Song is sometimes viewed as a Romeo and Juliet tale, and if we accept that, the love story of Mavka and Lukas is probably the most cosmic entry in that lineage. It is a love story connecting a human village with forest magic.
The animism of the play feels familiar to a Finnish viewer. It is close to the ancient faiths in the various provinces of what is now Finland such as Karelia, Tavastia and the Sami world of Lapland. The forest and the lake are alive with spirits, usually benevolent. Despite the victory of the Crusades, animism never ended in Finland. The story of Mavka has a spiritual affinity with Katja Gauriloff's Kaisa's Enchanted Forest (2016)
I understand that the adaptation of Oleh Malamuzh and Oleksandra Ruban is different from Lesya Ukrainka's play. But the directors have grasped the connection between animism and animation.
There is a thrilling energy, imagination and drive.
The power of Lukas's flute evokes the ancient Greek myth of Pan, associated with Fauna (divinity of the countryside) and Silvanus (guardian of the forests). He is human, but with access to the spirits of the nature. He is able to inspire Mavka herself. She in turn repairs Lukas's broken flute. Pan of course evokes Pantheism.
There are issues. Animals are ideal for animation, but animating people is a challenge that can hardly ever be perfectly solved. There are moments bordering on kitsch and shades of the saccharine.
But Malamuzh and Ruban have the courage of their convictions. The spell of the nature magic is genuine, the feeling of the fountain of life is compelling, the atavistic powers are formidable, the ecological myth of the destruction of the forest is terrifyingly topical. In the climax, the vision of the burning giant tornado, inside which Mavka faces eternity, has cosmic grandeur, and is expressed in a way only possible for animation.
The music by DrakhaBrakha, who also appear as animated characters, is essential to the experience.
Bravo.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT AND WIKIPEDIA:
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM THE PRESS KIT AND WIKIPEDIA:
Vihreitä arvoja korostava koko perheen animaatio Mavka: Metsän laulu on ukrainalais-amerikkalainen yhteistuotanto ja Euroopan laajuinen kassamenestys, joka kannustaa rakentamaan siltoja yli rajojen.
Muinaisista ajoista saakka Ukrainan metsät ovat kätkeneet sisäänsä uskomattomia salaisuuksia ja myyttisiä olentoja. Mavka on haltia ja metsän sielu, jonka tehtävä on suojella metsän sydäntä kaikilta vaaroilta, etenkin ihmisiltä. Lucas on läheisen kylän asukas, joka haaveilee urasta muusikkona. Kun heidän maailmansa kohtaavat, tapahtuu jotain odottamatonta: he rakastuvat. Mutta ihmisten ja metsän asukkaiden joutuessa törmäyskurssille vanhan sahalaitoksen perijättären juonien seurauksena, myös Mavka ja Lucas ajautuvat vastakkain. Voittaako rakkaus epäilyksen ja pelon?
HAHMOT
Mavka
Mavka on metsän Sielu. Kuten luonto itse, hän on kaunis, persoonaltaan iloinen, huolehtiva ja ystävällinen. Eräänä varhaisena maaliskuun päivänä tapahtuu jotain todella epätavallista, kun hän herättää metsän eloon kuten hän on tehnyt monta kevättä peräkkäin – hän tapaa ihmispojan Lucasin, kuulee hänen lumoavan musiikkinsa ja hänen sydämensä täyttyy siihen asti tuntemattomalla tunteella…
Samana päivänä, syistä jotka ovat tiedossa vain heille, luonnon ylimmät henget valitsevat Mavkan uudeksi metsän suojelijaksi. Seremonian jälkeen taianomaisen pajun juurella, hän voi hallita luonnon elementtejä ja suojella metsää ihmisiltä, sen päävihollisilta, sillä niin metsän laki julistaa.
Mutta monilla metsän asukkailla on epäilyksiä siitä, pystyykö lempeä ja herkkä Mavka selviytymään ihmisistä ja uusista velvollisuuksistaan. Mavkalla on vilpitön halu hoitaa uutta rooliaan suurimmalla vastuulla. Silti rakkauden vuoksi Mavka horjuttaa metsän lakia, muuttaen tapahtumien kulkua yrittäessään estää pysäyttämätöntä…
Lucas
Lucas on kyläpoika ja setä Leon oppipoikana sepänverstaalla, mutta elämä seppänä ei houkuttele häntä, koska hän on virtuoosi huilunsoittaja ja unelmoi tulla ammattimuusikoksi, mikä ei lainkaan miellytä Leoa ja saa heidät jatkuvasti ristiriitoihin.
Kaikki tämä kuitenkin muuttuu merkityksettömäksi, kun setä Leo sairastuu vakavasti ja Lucas huomaa tarvitsevansa kiireellisesti rahaa ostaaakseen hänelle lääkettä. Suureksi onnekseen kylään saapuu Kilina, teollisuusnainen, joka lupaa suuria rahoja sille, joka menee syvälle metsään ja löytää puun tietyillä epätavallisilla lehdillä. Paikalliset kieltäytyvät menemästä etsimään tätä harvinaista puuta, uskoen että metsässä asuu jonkinlainen paha. Tuntien, ettei hänellä ole vaihtoehtoja, Lucas on ainoa, joka lähtee metsään. Metsässä Lucasin musiikki tuo hänet yhteen Mavkan kanssa, ja hän rakastuu hullaantuneesti metsän suojelijaan.
Täplä
Täplä on söpö pilkullinen pentu ja Lucasin ystävä. Onnellinen koira, innokas tekemään ystäviä, leikkimään ja kuolaamaan kaikkien päälle. Hän on aidosti hämmentynyt, jos joku ei pidä siitä. Täplä rakastaa Lucasin musiikkia ja ulvoo aina epätahtiin ja saa isäntänsä pois tolaltaan. Hän on melko pelokas ja piiloutuu omistajansa taakse ensimmäisen vaaran merkissä. Täplällä on pitkäaikainen riita röyhkeän kukon kanssa, joka ajoi Täplän aikaa sitten ulos hänen kopistaan ja muutti sen kanalaksi. Mutta kaikesta huolimatta, kun aika koittaa, Täplä voittaa pelkonsa, näyttää Kukolle kaapin paikkaa ja auttaa Lucasia hänen synkimpänä hetkenään.
Suopu
Suopu on hassun näköinen sekoitus kissaa ja sammakkoa, villi metsän otus ja leikkisä lemmikki samanaikaisesti. Hän on Mavkan kaveri, iloinen ja mutkaton, valmis mihin tahansa seikkailuun tai kujeeseen, johon Mavka ryhtyy. Suopu myös maistelee kaikkea syötävää, mutta hän pitää eniten ihmisten ruoasta, erityisesti piirakoista, dumplingeista ja makeisista.
Madame Kilina
Kilina on itsekäs, ilkeä ja ahne. Kilina näyttää vain 30-vuotiaalta, mutta oikeasti hän on yli sadan. Hän piti itseään nuorena pitkään käyttämällä erikoista pisaraa, joka oli peräisin metsän sydämestä – se on elämän lähde. Hän sekoitti pisaran kosmetiikkaan, mutta sitten se loppui ja Kilina alkoi vanheta. Nyt hän haluaa kovasti pysyä nuorena ja kauniina, joten hän on päättänyt saada metsän sydämen itselleen. Hän ei välitä mistään, vaikka se olisi kuinka hirveää, kunhan vain saa sen, mitä haluaa.
Lesh
Vanha ja sammalpeitteinen Lesh oli aikoinaan metsän johtaja, mutta nyt hän inhoaa ihmisiä heidän virheidensä takia. Hän auttoi kerran ansaitsematonta miestä, mikä johti tuhoon ja kuolemaan. Lesh itse selvisi vaivoin. Siksi hän kielsi metsän asukkaita kohtaamasta ihmisiä ja käski asukkaita pelottelemaan heitä pois. Leshillä on apureinaan pieniä ja ketteriä ”mosslingseja”, jotka auttavat häntä valvomaan metsää. Luonnon ylimmät henget päättivät, että Mavka ottaa Leshin paikan metsän suojelijana, mikä huolestuttaa Leshiä.
Sammaleiset
Sammaleiset ovat hauskoja pikku olentoja, jotka näyttävät oksilta ja lehdiltä. Heitä on paljon, ja he asuvat ympäri metsää. Jotkut heistä asuvat jopa Leshin päällä. Sammaleisillä on oma tapa ”puhua” (tai siis, tekevät hauskoja ääniä), mutta kaikki metsän asukkaat ymmärtävät heitä. He ovat Leshin apulaisia, ja kuten Lesh, hekin pitävät huolta metsästä. Heillä on tiivis viestintäverkosto ja he voivat nopeasti varoittaa koko metsää välittömästä vaarasta.
Hyssy
Hyssy on pieni, karvainen ja äreä metsän otus, aina tyytymätön kaikkeen ympärillään. Hush vastaa metsän äänistä, mikä ehkä selittää hänen monimutkaisen luonteensa. Hyssy on Mavkan ystävä ja hän edustaa kaikkia niitä ominaisuuksia, joita Mavkalta puuttuu: pragmatismia, harkitsevuutta, fatalismia, pessimismiä ja tietenkin, kuten kaikki muutkin metsän asukkaat, yleistä inhoa ihmisiä kohtaan.
Haltiat
Ondina, Laurel ja Misty ovat kauniita haltioita ja metsän armeijan joukko-osasto. Heidän kaunis ulkonäkönsä peittää petollisen luontonsa: he tuhoavat metsän viholliset tai kuka tahansa, joka joutuu heidän väärälle puolelleen. Kolmikon johtaja on Ondina, joka pitää itseään ammattimaisena ihmisten pelottelijana. Hän tietää paljon ihmisistä ja voi haistaa heidän heinämäisen tuoksunsa kilometrien päähän. Ondina oli varma, että luonnon ylimmät henget valitsisivat hänet metsän suojelijaksi, ja hänen loukkaantunut egonsa ei vieläkään voi hyväksyä, että he valitsivat Mavkan sen sijaan.
WIKIPEDIA:
The animated film is set in two worlds: one enchanted and one human. The main theme of the film is a love story between an enchanted forest dweller (Mavka) and a human (Lukas), and their battle with the villain Kylina, who desires to own a magical forest wellspring.
Mavka: The Forest Song was released in Ukraine in March 2, 2023. This animated film has set several national records during its release in the cinemas. In particular, it became the highest-grossing Ukrainian film project for the whole history of the independent Ukrainian cinematography and entered the list of the twenty best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.
Dubbed into the English language and also into 32 local languages, Mavka: the Forest Song was shown on theater screens in approximately 140 countries worldwide. During the national release period, the original Ukrainian language version also ran in other countries.
Plot
The story begins with a flashback about the magical tree called the Source of Life inside the large and ancient Enchanted Forest. The Source of Life nourishes the whole forest as well as the inhabitants with its power. One day, a human trespassed through the Dark Mountain and entered the Enchanted Forest. This human was an owner of the sawmill, and begged Lesh, the current guardian of the forest, to give him a drop of water from the Source of Life to save his dying newborn daughter. Lesh gave it to the sawmill owner, but then, he returned with an army of humans to take all the power for himself. This led to a fierce battle, which Lesh won, but at a great cost to him and his people. He passes a new law that no humans are allowed in the forest and the passage in the Dark Mountain must remain closed off forever.
In the present day, a virtuous nymph named Mavka wakes up from her winter sleep and awakens every living creature in the Forest, along with her noisy friend, Hush, and her kitty-frog companion, Swampy. The forest dwellers all rejoice at the spring.
Meanwhile, in the human village located near the Enchanted Forest, a woman named Kylina introduces herself as the now adult daughter of the sawmill owner. She proposes a job to the village’s settlers: to go into the Dark Mountain for a huge sum of money, but they refuse due to believing there are forest demons in the woods. A young musician named Lukas needs money to buy medicine for his sick uncle, Leo, so he accepts the job. Kylina orders Lukas to find a tree with a special leaf in the Enchanted Forest.
In the Enchanted Forest, Lesh announces that the Supreme Spirits of Nature will choose a new guardian at the Heart of the Forest, as Lesh has become less powerful over time. A water nymph named Ondina criticizes Mavka's abundant kindness and deems her unqualified for the role.
Mavka encounters Lukas and tries to scare him away, but after hearing him play his sopilka, she admires his musical talent. After Lukas explains his intentions, Mavka believes he's not evil so she offers to give him a cure, with Hush reluctantly helping them as Lukas promises he'll leave after. In gratitude for her help, Lukas promises Mavka to play his music for her. After spending time walking through the forest together, feelings arise between them.
At midnight, Lesh summons the forest dwellers to the tree with Lukas in disguise. The Spirits choose Mavka as the new guardian of the forest, which Ondina objects to the choice. Lukas speaks out in Mavka's defense but Ondina sees through his disguise and he gets chased out. Mavka allows Lukas to escape and gives him a drop from the Source of Life tree to cure his uncle, but he doesn't have time to play his music for her as he had promised. Ondina berates her for letting him go and then warns that he will eventually betray her. When Lukas returns, Kylina is not convinced that he came back empty-handed, so she orders her stylist, Frol, to keep an eye on him. Mavka's cure successfully heals Uncle Leo and makes him younger. Frol finds the special leaf from the tree, confirming that Lukas did find it so Kylina prepares for when he goes back to the forest.
The following day, noticing that Lukas had dropped his sopilka during his escape, Mavka disguises herself to look human and goes to the village with Swampy to return the sopilka to Lukas and to try to make peace with the humans. Lukas invites Mavka to come to the village's spring festival and she accepts. At the festival, he gifts her with a Vyshyvanka dress as well as a pendant he made with four carved runes symbolizing the elements of nature. After having a good time enjoying the folk dancing, Lukas tries to keep his promise to play his music for Mavka, but when he plays, it accidentally undoes Mavka's disguise and reveals her as a nymph to the village. Seizing the opportunity, Kylina locks Lukas away in the mansion's basement and turns the villagers against Mavka, but Lesh saves her. Lesh tells Mavka the story of what had happened many years before, and how he once used the Spark of Rage, a pyrokinetic power bestowed on him by the Supreme Spirit of Fire, the One Who Sits in the Rock, which allowed him to defeat the sawmill owner's army. But that power came at a price, the price being his immense strength. He tells her the relationship between humans and the forest is a never-ending cycle of fire and death.
Kylina tries to get Lukas to mark the location of the Source of Life tree on her map, but he refuses. When he figures out Kylina captured Mavka he agrees to her demands, only to realize that Frol was disguised as Mavka. Kylina starts drowning Lukas in her basement and then rallies the villagers to raid the forest. Mavka tries to reason with Kylina by telling her the story of her father, the sawmill owner, but Kylina reveals that she is not the sawmill owner's daughter, but is instead his wife and that she made him lie about their "daughter" being ill and also that she was the mastermind behind the first battle years ago due to her selfish desire for immortality and eternal beauty. Kylina then tricks Mavka into thinking Lukas betrayed her by taking advantage of her kindness and selling the Source of Life's location for money. This finally makes her think all humans are evil. A battle starts between the humans and the forest dwellers. Mavka, sad with regret, summons the One Who Sits in the Rock to bestow her with the Spark of Rage, promising to pay the price with her life. The power of the Spark of Rage proves to be too much as she loses her sense of empathy and drives out both the humans and forest dwellers together. A deadly firestorm descends on the village.
Hush, Swampy, and Dot, Lukas' dog, save Lukas from drowning and together they rush to stop Mavka from decimating the village. Realizing that Mavka can't hear his words, Lukas plays his sopilka, inspiring the villagers and forest dwellers to sing along to wake Mavka from her trance and stop the firestorm. They succeed, but Makva is near death and Lukas cries as he pleads for her to come back. While Mavka's soul lies in the Void, she learns that Lukas never betrayed her. The One Who Sits in the Rock reaffirms that the Spirits made the right choice in choosing Mavka as the Guardian for she bridged the gap between the humans and the forest dwellers, but since she offered to pay the price with her life, she must now remain in the Void for all of eternity. Mavka refuses, saying that her heart is now full and will never die. Impressed by this, the Supreme Spirits return her to life and she awakens. Mavka and Lukas kiss as they reaffirm their love and the villagers and the forest dwellers agree to stop fighting and make peace.
In the post-credits scene, an old and wrinkled Kylina finds the Source of Life. Happy, she dives into the magical water, but in several minutes, she turns into a baby.[13]
Creation history
Idea
The first idea to create the animated film on the basis of "The Forest Song" appeared in 2014. The producer Iryna Kostiuk mentions that Serhiy Sozanovskiy, the co-founder of the "Film.UA Group" company, was one of the people who proposed it.
Development
The official brief was written in 2014. Until 2015 there was only the selection process of screenwriters’ applications.
In September 2015 the press service of the “Film.UA Group” company claimed about the beginning of the production of the animated film on the basis of the classic writing “The Forest Song” by Lesia Ukrainka. At the beginning of work the creators were willing to adapt “The Forest Song” to the family animation, make the happy end in it and to raise current topics, such as ecological issues. In 2016, the project came to the stage of the deep development: the work on the script writing started. The producers worked on the storyline and tried to cooperate with different authors. Later, the screenwriter Yaroslav Voitsesheck joined the project team. In September 2016 this project won the ninth competition by the Ukrainian State Film Agency and received state financing in 24.5 billion UAH.
The first teaser of the project was shown in 2017. In March 2017, the producers of “Film.UA Group” and "Animagrad" took the first international pitching of Mavka: The Forest Song in one of the biggest animation forums in Europe, “Cartoon Movie”. It took place in Bordeux, France, and Ukraine was represented there for the first time. During the traditional survey within the forum, a lot of participants called the Mavka: The Forest Song pitch the best in the scope of 50 projects. The producers collected feedback from the major companies of the animated films market, such as “The Walt Disney Company”, The International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), “Canal+”, “TF1 International”, “Super RTL” and others. In parallel with this event, the script was being written, as well as the appearance and the depiction of Mavka was under the work.
In 2018 the process of creating 2D-animatics started and it lasted until the end of 2019.
"When the script is done, the animatics starts. It is a 2D version of the whole animated film in accordance with the script. Our animatics was appeared to be very long and then the process of its shortening began. In fact, we wrote a new script for one more year. After rewriting of the script and redoing of animatics, you go into the expected timing and only after this the budget evaluations start. When you see that the budget is bigger than it was expected, you begin to simplify scenes. Or, you start looking for financing…" - Iryna Kostiuk in the Business Media Reports interview, April 2021.
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