Bullmastiff

Credits

cast

Anastasiia Bukovska

Director
10/18/1979

Biography

Anastasiia Bukovska grew up in a family of filmmakers. She graduated from the top Ukrainian film school as a director, and after that, she passed the test of working on TV. Since 2004, Anastasia is a co-founder and producer of Family Production, one of the leading production companies in Ukraine. Family produces commercials for major global brands, music videos, and feature films for foreign markets. Anastasia is also a member of the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine. Bullmastiff is her debut movie as a director.

Filmography

Filmography (as an Executive Producer): • ‘Leander’s Last Trip’ (2017, dir. Nick Baker-Monteys, Ukraine-Germany co-production). • ‘Free Land’ (2019, dir. Christian Alvart, Ukraine-Germany co-production).

Directors Statement

The film “Bullmastiff” is a multi-level allegory of a person’s relationship with his memories. With this picture I want to draw the attention of society to the problem of post-traumatic syndrome in people who survived the war and other psychological injuries. Our film is both a personal and social story. Therefore, while watching a movie, the viewer will perceive it as a story of the relationship between the protagonist and the dog. And only gradually the understanding will come that the Bullmastiff is an image, a memory of which one person is silent and tries to erase from his memory, while the other himself does not allow these memories to disappear. The relevance of the topic is that society forgets about the tragedies that occur nearby and is not ready to take back people who need psychological support. The flow of news outlines our attitude to the surrounding reality, and the heroes of the reports become only part of the inevitable statistics. Therefore, every person who has survived a war, natural disaster or illness faces a choice: to shut himself in and try to forget about everything (but this is impossible to do); or every day to remind yourself and others about what happened. At the same time, some people lose the ability to control emotions, while others find salvation in alcohol. But my goal was not only to raise a relevant public topic, but also to create a spectator movie that would be interesting to watch without understanding the context. Therefore, I paid special attention to casting and key members of the team. The main actors are Yevgeny Lamakh, Nina Antonova, Alexey Gorbunov, well-known in Ukraine and abroad. The stinginess of the emotions of the protagonist performed by Eugene is fully offset by the aggressive pressure of Alexei Gorbunov, whom I saw as a veteran from the moment of writing the script. And my own grandmother, the famous actress Nina Antonova, gave the film an intimacy and subtlety that is inherent only in the relations of truly native people. The operator of the film was Anton Fursa, whose work is shown at major world festivals. It is no accident that the breed of the dog, the bullmastiff, was also chosen. Gigantic dimensions that inspire fear of any passerby are combined with a truly human character and a sad look. Long before the start of filming, Eugene Lamach began to practice with our dog, nicknamed Marcel, so that their relationship in the frame looked as organic as possible. Marcel reacted to the slightest gestures of the actor and completed almost all the tasks that stood before him according to the script. I am sure that “Bulmastiff” will attract the attention of a thoughtful viewer who likes to think about what he watched after leaving the cinema. But the picture itself, showing typical locations of post-Soviet sleeping areas and immersing in the special atmosphere of the film, will not allow you to remain indifferent.