Dinner with Kohannia (Deep Love)
Interview with Mykyta Lyskov, director of Kohannia (Deep Love)
Can you explain the title Kohannia?
Kohannia (Кохання) is a purely Ukrainian word. This word means a close, sincere connection between people very similar to love but in a different deep sense. Therefore, it was rather difficult for me to find the equivalent of Kohannia in English, and as a result I chose Deep Love.
Your short includes many surreal situations. Is this because you want viewers to be able to interpret your film in their own way?
I like surrealism in animation because it can have several readings. And the viewer wants to review the film several times, discuss it with someone else or Google it. I don’t know exactly what some scenes mean. I, like the viewer, interpret them subjectively in my own way.
We get a sense that plastic bags embody aspects of today’s life in Ukraine. What do they symbolise: blindness? Environmental problems?
I really like René Magritte and especially his picture of a kiss, probably this picture also prompted me to put bags on people’s heads and thereby modernize it. The problem of plastic is relevant all over the world now, in Ukraine, especially because we still do not have a garbage sorting system. In the context of the film, packages on their heads can also be a symbol of blind love.
Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
It seems to me that the short format is good in that it can be saturated with gags and information as much as possible. I can’t imagine the same density would be possible in a full-length film, the viewer could not stand it and in the end they would become bored.
What do you consider your cinematographic references?
Of course, the most important reference is Estonian animator Priit Pärn and his Breakfast on the Grass. It seems to me that what Estonia experienced in the 1990s, Ukraine is experiencing now (rejection of Soviet influence and the Soviet way of thinking). Phil Mulloy is also one of my heroes, his super simple but so frank and fearless films have influenced me very much and made me look differently at the possibilities of animation.
