MoldovAnn

Our day started about 8:30 a.m. in a small administrative office at Boryspil airport, the room being “on loan” to the film crew as a type of green room. I met my “husband” for the day, Peter, who is a British businessman living in Kyiv for 3 or 4 years. He happens to be friends with the producer’s wife, which is how he landed his part.

We met the 12-year Russian actress Liza who plays one of the lead roles. Liza and her mother had just flown in from Moscow, literally just, having arrived on a 7:00 flight (and they’d been up since 3:00 am). We met some of the film crew, like Margo (who was the woman who took my picture on Tuesday), who seems to be a jack-of-all-trades and the person responsible for finding and hiring the extras as well as making sure everyone is well taken care of. Oksana was introduced as the administrative, although I didn’t quite catch exactly what she did. Galya was the make-up person, who got to work on us pretty quickly. Although the make-up felt like a lot on my skin, it was actually much less than I had expected – no eye makeup, no lipstick, just foundation and powder. Poor Peter, who is bald, had his entire head covered with make-up, and a couple times during the day Galya did “touch ups” on him, calling it “anti-shine”.

We met the first and second directors, but I only remember the name of the first director, Aleksander (aka Sasha) Kirienko. He directed the film “Orange Sky“, which is quite well known here, often called the first modern Ukrainian film. However, most of the actors were from Russia, and most of the dialog is in Russian, which turned off most of the Ukrainians I know (and I have yet to meet a Ukrainian who has actually seen the film). Kirienko teamed up with Igor Volkov, a young Ukrainian producer, on both Orange Sky and this new movie, called “Our Own Children”.

We also met the main actor, Aleksei Serebryakov, a pretty famous Russian actor. He didn’t really “mix with the masses” much during the day.

The story revolves a young Ukrainian couple and an orphaned girl. The woman had been fostering the girl before she met and married the man. To make a long story short, he turns out to be very prejudiced about kids from orphanages, and rejects the girl. She goes back to the orphanage, and the couple try to have their “own” children. Only to discover that he is infertile and can’t father children. He and the woman separate, and she tries to get the girl back from the orphanage. We discover the girl has been so traumatized by all that’s happened, she’s become an “invalid” – wheelchair-bound, mute and unresponsive. The orphanage director won’t give her back to the woman since she’s “rejected” her already one time, and she doesn’t want to risk another devastating change of heart. The man, though, finally comes to his senses, gets back together with his wife and they want to try together to get the girl back. He goes to the orphanage to beg the director, only to discover that he’s just minutes too late – an American couple has adopted her and they are literally driving to the airport at that moment. He rushes after them, sees them checking in at the gate, crashes through all manner of security, and runs out onto the tarmac to talk to the girl.

Enter Peter and Ann, aka American Couple. We are seen taking the girl, Lada, in her wheelchair out of the bus and starting towards the plane. The Ukrainian man runs up to us, grabs the wheelchair and tries to take her away from us. Here is our moment to shine, as we act our pants off like we are scared, confused, and upset. We struggle with him for a few seconds, and then back off as he pushes Lada a few feet away to talk to her. He begs her forgiveness, pleads with her, but she is unresponsive. He is heartbroken, but realizes it’s too late. He starts to walk away. Peter and I rush to Lada and protectively start wheeling her again towards the plane. Lada suddenly jumps from her wheelchair, we look shocked senseless (we had no idea she could walk), and she runs after the Ukrainian man yelling “papochka, papochka!” (daddy, daddy!). She jumps into his arms. End of film.

So, our part is literally in the last two minutes of the film, and we are far from the focus of any scene. But hell, we’ll be in the credits!

To get those 2 minutes of film, we spent 12 hours at the airport yesterday. The shot each scene so many times! From this angle, from that angle, with the bus in the background, without the bus. Loading girl and wheelchair into the bus, unloading them. Over and over and over and over. Because we were out on the tarmac, in the secure area of the airport, we couldn’t just come and go as we were needed, and they weren’t allowed to bring out food or drink, and, of course, there were no toilets. About 40 extras and crew members were out there for about 7 hours – it was not a pretty site by the end. Everyone was tired, hungry, and REALLY cranky. When we finally went back to the terminal, the directors wanted to film a couple more scenes inside, but grudgingly agreed to let us eat some dinner first. Thank goodness!

They want Peter and me for one more day’s work in two weeks, when we’ll film the scene at the orphanage when we are picking up Lada. They say it will be a shorter day, but I’ll be prepared for another long one, just in case. I’ll bring a bottle of water and my own snacks this time!

I don’t know when the film will be released, but I’ll ask what the tentative plan is during our next shoot. And I’ll keep you posted about my film debut!