Section: It's all go in the East

Spivaye Ivano-Frankivsteplokomunergo

Heat Singers

Nadia Parfan
Ukraine, 2019, 64 Min

They sing about Cossacks, the mountains and forests, hawks and girls … and love. Nadia Parfan's affectionate documentary accompanies the award-winning choir of a thermal power station to its customers who, in turn, find themselves literally up to their necks in water.

During the last dispute, which played out at the independence celebration, there weren't enough people willing to take the side of the local power station. This was an embarrassment; with these words veteran union leader Ivan opens the agenda of the union meeting. It's not about winning; Instead it's a question of the honour of the collective. In a broken system those who earn too little to even be able to cover their own heating bills should at the very least be able to rely on one another.

Those central heating systems, across the city they are forever falling into disrepair, as pipelines leak and burst. The first plants are already taking root in the flooded cellars, whilst the complaint hotline finds itself inundated with calls; and then there is the yelling and insults.

Through it all the choir continues to conjure up memories of the good times however. The rehearsals have to be organised, and new songs rehearsed; these are the matters that the union man now turns his attentions to. The fight against the system, waged during fifteen years of service, has been lost; now it's about what remains when he leaves. If nobody is willing to sing the praises of the heroes of the working class, they will have to do it themselves.

Nadia Parfan -

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.