MOSCOW -- Tensions between Ukraine and Russia may have been high recently on energy issues -- and they're churning on the film distribution front as well, after Ukraine's cabinet confirmed Jan. 20 legislation to introduce compulsory Ukrainian-language quotas on films release after September.
The cabinet is asking for 20% of both theatrical and ancillary releases to be in Ukrainian, either dubbed or with voiceover or subtitled, by Sept. 1. The quota rises to 50% by Jan. 1, 2007, with a final 70% target by July 2007.
All films released in the Ukraine, one of Europe's fastest-growing exhibition markets, come in Russian from Moscow-based distribs -- whether the pics are international product or Russian fare like Fyodor Bondarchuk's "9th Company" which topped the Ukraine B.O. last year with receipts of more than $2 million.
Industry players say the local market just isn't ready for such moves, either economically or technically.
Mark Lolo, head of distribution at Central Partnership, told
Variety: "If it happens, we will have to go along with it -- but costs will go up significantly, and far fewer pics will be released."
"The main complication is the lack of any kind of technical base in Ukraine for dubbing," agrees Andrei Dyachenko of the Kiev subsid of Russia's Gemini Film.
More prints are booked into the Ukraine's Russian-speaking eastern regions, which therefore generate higher box office. Gemini's Dyachenko fears such returns will be eaten into by pirated Russian-language ancillary alternatives.
Russian pics like of "Day Watch" could play with Ukrainian subtitles rather than a dub, and still reach viewers (most of whom would happily ignore the titles). That's an advantage Hollywood product wouldn't have, however -- research consistently has shown that audiences don't want to watch foreign subtitled films.
The government doesn't appear interested in compromise, however. "If distributors and exhibitors can't find common language with Ukrainian realities, then they will disappear, and new distributors will appear in their place," said Les Tanyuk, head of the cultural committee of Ukraine's parliament, in the local press.
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