The first teaser for Khachatur Vasilian’s movie “My Young Prince” was released by Real Pictures. The Ukrainian State Film Agency’s pitch competition was won by a movie with an explicit LGBTQ plot, and the government awarded UAH 20 million in funding.
Paul is a 17-year-old male who follows a promiscuous lifestyle and lives in a luxurious home. Additionally, he has an unhealthy crush on Sofia, his mother. Paul and his mother are soon joined in their life by a small child named Antoine and his father, Marc. The relationships Sofia and Paul have with Mark and Antoine respectively. However, catastrophe results from the addition of the new lads to the home.
Petro Nynovsky (from “Nightmare Director or School No. 5”), Akhtem Seitablaev (from “Homeward”), Yevhen Lisnychyi (from “New Girl”), Oksana Zhdanova (from “11 Children from Morshyn”), and Anastasia Pustovit (from “When the Trees Fall”) all played the important roles. Oleksiy Gladushevsky (Early Swallows) and Regina Maryanovska-Davidzon (Unwanted People) were the film’s producers.
The movie is still in development, thus the precise release date is unknown at this time.
After winning the Ukrainian State Film Agency pitch competition, the movie became the centre of the controversy. The subject was covered by the Russian media, particularly the propaganda TV station Russia-24, whose host reacted to the financing decision by wishing Ukrainian homosexuals well.
A petition to halt the funding of the movie was issued in the interim on the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers’ website for electronic petitions. The picture “encroaches on the basis of public morality, encourages sacrilege, and disrespect for religious sanctuaries,” according to certain Verkhovna Rada members, who made the same request to the Prime Minister.
In an interview with DTF Magazine, the film’s producer, Oleksiy Gladushevskyi, addressed the film’s subject: «The press caught up on this film, and all the headlines came out with the heading “The Initially LGBT Drama in Ukraine” when we first defended the film at the pitch. It was crucial for me to make it obvious that this isn’t exactly the case, though. The primary subject is unrelated. It also discusses the hero’s connection with his mother and the loneliness of youngsters in their make-believe worlds. The major line of the heroine’s connection with her mother, her previous partners, and her new boyfriend is prioritised over the LGBTQ line and the line with the females of the protagonist, who eventually meets a boy. This is what’s important.
Additionally, he hopes that “My Young Prince” will be screened at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, such as Cannes or Berlinale.
