In mid-November 2023, reports circulated on the RuNet that a high-budget historical film was being prepared about how the ancient Ukrainians dug up the Black Sea. Such publications are often accompanied by two images: a poster and a photo supposedly from the presentation of the film. We checked whether this project is real.
The news about the supposed announcement of a Ukrainian film received the greatest distribution in the Russian-language segment of Telegram. In the channel "Sexton”(49,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), where both viral images were published, they wrote: “In Ukraine they want to shoot the film “The History of the Black Sea.” At the pitching they asked for 80 million UAH (about 200 million rubles). The film is positioned as "historical". On the poster, a shovel is stuck in the water. Have they really decided to film the myth about the ancient Ukrainians who dug the sea?” In the channel Voblya (136,000 views) joked that the supposedly announced film would be in the comedy genre.
Publications similar in content are posted in Telegram channels "Uncle Slava"(182,000 views), "Truthfulness"(171,000), "Observer" (170,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(132,000), "Ukraine.ru"(86,000), "Talipov 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞"(56,000), "Bullet 18+"(44,000), "Boiling water"(41,000), "DPR Info" (35,000), "Political navigator" (31,000), "Nina Vatt" (31,000), "New 🅉 Ukraine" (30,000) and "Denazification UA"(22,000), on VKontakte (examples here, here, here, here And here) and social network X (formerly Twitter; here, here And here), as well as on news sites, including “Donpress" And "Zaporozhye news feed"
To begin with, “Verified” tried to find information about the film “History of the Black Sea” on Ukrainian sites, but we not found not a single mention of such a film either in the media or on film portals. This seems unlikely, given that the budget of 80 million UAH indicated in the distributed posts is only slightly less than that of the most expensive films of Ukraine. Accordingly, we were also unable to find any details about the proposed pitching of this project.
As for the likely original source of the news, the earliest publication about the film of interest to us among those tracked by “Verified” appeared on November 11, 2023 at 11:25 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Shaman Rahu"(3000 views). The same post contains a poster and a photo allegedly taken at the presentation of the film. This channel has already been used two dozen times mentioned in our analyzes in connection with the spread of misinformation - mainly fake photos and videos. Moreover, this channel was one of the first where in May 2023 published fake cover of the book “History of Ukraine for children. From primitive times to the present day." The cover was also distributed with reference to the myth that the Black Sea was allegedly dug up by ancient Ukrainians.
Now let’s look at a poster that has gone viral on social networks. At the top of the image it is indicated that the painting will be “based on historical events”, and in the center is the title. However, the most interesting part is the lower part of the picture, where usually place important information about the film: names of the distributor and production studio, names of actors, screenwriters and directors and other creators, as well as partner logos, premiere date and additional information. On the “History of the Black Sea” poster, this information seems to be present, but it is not possible to read it, since the text is blurred. In addition, the film allegedly received an age limit of “+18”, although in Ukraine this rating is both television, and in film distribution - called “18+”.
The second image is believed to be a shot taken from the audience during the presentation of a film in need of funding. In theory, this fact could explain the oddities of the above poster: for example, that the image with a shovel was not needed for rental, but only for showing to potential sponsors during pitching. You can also see in this photo that the edges of the poster were stretched in a photo editor so that it took up the entire screen area. Of course, this could also be explained by the carelessness of the authors of the presentation.
However, using the keywords, “Verified” found an almost identical photo, where the screen showed not the poster of the film “History of the Black Sea”, but the logo of the State Agency of Ukraine for Film Affairs. In addition, the viral photo was mirrored. The photo we found is a preview records nine-hour broadcast entitled “Presentation sessions of the 15th competitive selection. Day 2,” which was held on the YouTube channel of the Ukrainian agency back on June 15, 2021. Then from June 14 to 16 in Kyiv passed the second stage of the next competitive selection of film projects applying for funding from the State Cinema Committee of Ukraine.
In fact, the team from the MO Films company, captured in the photo, end second day of the event presented New Year's romantic comedy "Z Novym kRokom", the plot of which is based on book “Drunk Christmas tree” by Anna Demidova. According to application, the total budget of the film was supposed to be about 15 million UAH, and the authors asked Goskino for almost 12 million.
Thus, the film “History of the Black Sea” does not exist. Initially, information about this fake project appeared in a network of pro-Russian Telegram channels, which had previously repeatedly disseminated anti-Ukrainian fakes. The photo, supposedly taken during pitching, was carelessly altered in a photo editor, and the poster, judging by the strange shape and color of the shovel, was most likely created using a neural network.
Cover photo: social networks / @ukrainefilmagency
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