Series Mania Jury President Julia Sinkevych ‘Scared’ to Leave Ukraine
variety.comMarta Balaga Ukrainian producer Julia Sinkevych, named main jury president at French TV festival Series Mania, is still hoping to come to Lille this week despite the ongoing war.“Last night, there was bombing not far from Lviv, so you never know. [Producer] Dariusz Jabłoński and the Polish Film Academy are helping out Ukrainian filmmakers and they will pick me up when I am in Poland,” she tells Variety during a conversation interrupted by a siren.“Usually, it means you have to hide.
But I am so tired of it – it happens so often. So sometimes, I don’t.”In the worst-case scenario, she will be watching competition titles online from a shelter, with French writer and director Marc Dugain appointed as vice-president.
Sinkevych admits she is “scared and frightened” to leave Ukraine as she might not be able to return to her family, but is adamant about bringing more attention to what is happening in her country. “I don’t have military training; I don’t know how to fight.
But I know how culture can influence people and how cinema can change their perceptions on the world. That’s how I can be useful right now,” she says.“I decided it will be a chance for me to speak up and not have someone else speaking on our behalf, like Sergei Loznitsa is doing at the moment – someone who hasn’t lived here for 20 years, someone who is not here at the moment and someone who doesn’t know how it feels.
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