Film Review: My Babushka: Searching For Ukranian Identities
by Marinell Haegelin
MY BABUSHKA: SEARCHING FOR UKRANIAN IDENTITIES
Barbara Hammer, USA 2001
The feminist documentarian Barbara Hammer was ahead of the times in many ways. Curious, aware and in sync with her roots she naturally packed her equipment and old family photographs and headed east in 2001 when Ukraine wiggled free from Russia’s grasp. Forging new paths was natural; in a male dominated industry she was both a prolific filmmaker (almost 100 films), and a legendary pioneer in lesbian cinema for over five decades. Hammer’s innovative approach and wide-ranging topical spectrum included a propensity for provocativeness. Frequently using the experimental genre Hammer’s themes explored physicality, love, politics, sex and gender, history and ethnicity.
High in the air during the flight to Ukraine the director talks about telling her maternal grandmother she would someday go to Ukraine – that day’s arrived. Barbara’s goal is to find relatives and perhaps even direct relatives in Zbarazh, her grandparents’ small hometown. With fellow-filmmaker Nelia Pasichnyk and camerawoman Alice Perry and translators, it’s the conversations that provide intimate details about the cruelty inflicted on citizens. Although living in the “the breadbasket of the world” (once more being upended by Russia) people waited in long lines for rationed bread. “They don’t understand what democracy is.” Homophobia, anti-Semitism—bullet holes adorn tombs in a Jewish cemetery—and the depressed economy presented new challenges. Ukrainians are confused and perplexed at old ways breaking down with no stopgaps in place. Meeting good people, Barbara’s first favorable result is confirmed by a photograph and nose in profile match that unbelievably leads to her babushka.
Tellingly, the newly unoppressed citizens of Ukraine are forthright and honest talking about the past versus democracy. Often speaking in English, their many comparisons censure Russian actions. To see and hear how far Ukrainians advanced in such a short time should shame fat-cat democracies teetering on their self-created abysses.
