12/10/2022 - Principal photography is under way on Arkadii Nepytaliuk’s feature, which is based on Ihor Bilyts’ stage play Gay Parade

Filming for Arkadii Nepytaliuk's feature Lessons of Tolerance [+see also:
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Three writers worked together to pen the script: Arkadii Nepytaliuk, Lyudmila Tymoshenko and Oleksiy Gladushevskyу. The film is being produced by Serhiy Lavrenyuk, and it stars Oleksandr Yarema, Olena Uzlyuk, Karolina Mruga, Akmal Guriezov, Oleksandr Piskunov and Boris Georgiivskyi.

The project emerged as one of the winners of the 17th competition organised by the State Cinema body and was a participant in the pitching session of the industry section of the 12th Odesa Film Festival. Solar Media Entertainment is on board as the producer.

As for the plot, a provincial school teacher who wishes to save her family from implosion and crushing debt persuades her husband and children to sign up for a state-run programme focusing on European integration, dubbed "Lessons of Tolerance". In accordance with this programme, they have to house an LGBT representative and activist in their home for a certain period of time. Now the family is forced to grapple with their own homophobia and their rejection of “otherness”.

Director Arkadii Nepytaliuk comments on the concept of the film: “Lessons of Tolerance is a story that has the potential to become a movie that can reach through to our dark, inner world and allay prejudice in those who have it”.

Producer Serhiy Lavrenyuk says: “Despite the enemy's incredible attempts to take away the opportunity for Ukrainians to do what they love, Ukrainian cinema is alive and kicking! It's nice to see 45 happy people on set. I hope there will be many more of them soon [...]. I would like to immediately challenge the idea that this is an LGBT film, though. Rather, it is about all Ukrainians and how we treat the phobias that exist in every Ukrainian, in every family. It’s not only homophobia; it is also xenophobia, and partly also manifestations of racism and sexism. Ukrainians, like all people, show signs of this. Homophobia is simply one of the sharpest, most obvious symptoms. Ukrainians treat homosexuality not only with prejudice, but also with fear, sometimes even bordering on horror. The topic of LGBT people in our country serves exclusively as a trigger to dissect all of the negative manifestations of Ukrainian families and society in general.”

Finally, screenwriter Oleksiy Gladushevskyу chips in: “We made a kind of mix between the first draft and the original [stage play], and worked on it until the war. We thought it turned out very well, so we started working on it online. And the casting that we had planned from the very beginning all worked out. So I hope it will be a great movie.”