Olena Chekan (1946-2013) played her first role in Andrei Tarkovsky's film Solaris.

Olena Chekan was not only a celebrated actor in Ukrainian cinema and theater, she was also politically active as a journalist. She demonstrated her civic engagement and her radiant hope for an independent Ukraine in media for the masses such as the Ukrainian Weekly Newspaper where she reported on current events. She mobilized allies by questioning western political and cultural figures about the possibilities of, and their advice for achieving, Ukrainian liberty. To Chekan, the greatest enemy of freedom was ultimately not the barbarity of the Others, but the deeply human propensity for selective repression and forgetting. This second volume of two (Olena Chekan – The Quest for a free Ukraine / Der Konterfei 15, Sept. 2015) deals with Chekan's acting career and literary work as well as with Ukrainian cinema and theater in general. With contributions by Juliette Binoche, Marie Bashkirtseff, Lina Kostenko, Aleksei Kozlov, Gilles Leroy, Manon Loizeau, Serge Avedikian, Oksana Zabuzhko, Régis Wargnier and many others.

Language: English