Saturday morning is the time for the weekly bazaar when vendors come to the village square to sell fresh produce, fabric, candy, and assorted home and hardware items. It’s the place to see and be seen in Legedzine! Not only do I buy 10 eggs, a melon, a cabbage, four carrots, a lemon, three eggplants, four tomatoes and five peppers for just under $5, I get kisses and hugs from all my favorite babushki, who remind me of my own dear Baba back home in Vancouver.
Up at 6 am to wish Naomi safe journey as she leaves for a stint at the fabulous Film Farm in Ontario. This leaves Tatu (one of the Top 3 dogs in the world) and me home alone at Echo Luna for the next week! Our first day entails morning tea and reading on the front porch, a few household chores, some gardening, naps, a swim in the pond, watching birds and squirrels play in our big trees, and a nice dinner. Oh, and cuddling. Lots of cuddling.
I’m giving Varsava ukulele lessons in exchange for Ukrainian lessons. Somehow I have the feeling she’ll be rocking “You Are My Sunshine” long before I’m reciting the poems of Taras Shevchenko, uh, I mean Тара́с Григо́рович Шевче́нко!
Naomi and I spend much of the day in Echo Luna’s huge garden, pulling weeds and drowning the dreaded Colorado Beetles that decimate potato and tomato plants. We also give a little love to the raspberries, eggplant, watermelon, cucumbers, peppers, basil, carrots, mint, horseradish, corn, spinach and sunflowers. The warm earth feels good. Late in the afternoon we take a break to go get milk and sour cream… they don’t sell it at the local store but our neighbor milks her cows three times a day and if your timing is right, it’s pretty much straight from the moo to you!
Today my young friends Davide, Varsava and I plan to channel our inner Indiana Jones and help out with the local archeological dig. The Legedzine area contains extensive ruins of the Trypillian culture and each summer university students from Kiev work come and unearth buildings (mysteriously burned more than 5000 years ago) and household items such as cooking vessels and toys which are catalogued and put on display at the local museum. Unfortunately, as we are waiting for our ride to the site at 6 am, thunder rolls, lightning flashes and the rain comes pouring down. While a little bummed out and more than a little soaked, we’re happy for all the local gardens which really, really needed some moisture after weeks of hot summer heat.
The Echo Luna property is comprised of several traditional buildings–the main house (3 rooms and a sun porch), the summer kitchen (which has been turned into a guest room/storage area), the pogrev (the underground root cellar to keep food cool in summer and not frozen in winter), the tool shed (one part of which has been turned into a second guest room), the animal shed, the coal shed… But in the summer time, life is mostly lived outside around the big table underneath the walnut tree… Meals, card games, heated discussions, impromptu concerts, libations of all kinds, and afternoon art-making sessions… everyone who drops by is welcome to participate.
Just like traditional Ukrainian village houses, there’s no running water or indoor plumbing at Echo Luna. Sunday is bath day which means taking the bus to Uman (the “big city” 30 km away) to spend the afternoon at the banya, where ladies young and old enjoy the very hot steam bath (birch branches to hit yourself and/or your friends with optional) followed by the very cold showers. Super cheap, no frills, all the latest gossip, open 3 – 8 pm, good clean fun!
Next stop: Echo Luna, the artist residency/retreat located in the small village of Legedzine in central Ukraine that was started by filmmaker Naomi Uman, Paolo and me in 2007. Since then, Naomi has spent a large portion of her time here, making films and paintings and becoming a beloved part of the Legedzine community. It’s rare that I get to spend more than a few days a year at Echo Luna so the prospect of an entire month in the village is exciting indeed. Naomi and Tatu meet my plane at Borispol airport which is all spiffed up to welcome the world to Euro Cup 2012. But before leaving for the village, we spend some time with musician friends in Kiev, here to play a festival show of traditional Ukrainian music with a twist… Privyet! It’s great to be back in the motherland!
Thank you, Dagie, for making our time in Berlin so free, fresh and fantastic… We’ll see you in LA next June! But now it’s time, once again, to be moving on…. Dublin for Paolo, Kiev for me… the next phase of the glorious journey begins!
The shortest night of the year can also be one of the best. We wrap up our week in Berlin with a truly lovely screening of The Sound We See: LA and Rotterdam plus Here & Now movies n’ music at the glamorous Z-Bar cinema. The packed house includes some very enthusiastic new friends plus a whole lotta EPFC-related loved ones including our first Summer Artist In Residence Roger Beebe, 2008 Filmmobile tour workshop host Julie Saragosa, youth class alumni Vincent Uribe, and Felix Meyer & Sarah Schoenfeld who showed work in the Film Center cinema last year during their time at Villa Aurora. Special thanks to dear Dagie Brundert (EPFC’s fourth Summer Artist In Residence!) and Klaus Eisenlohr & Directors Lounge for making the magic happen!
