On December 2, we honor the memory of Zinaida Chirkova, a journalist, documentary filmmaker and writer. In addition to many directed films, she also wrote the script for the Soviet animated cartoon – “Aistenok Kich”. But who else had a hand in creating this picture?
Speaking about the development of animation, it is impossible not to recall the name of Leonid Domnin, who left a significant mark on Moldovan culture and art. In addition to his artistic activity in the field of easel and book graphics, we can safely say that Leonid Domnin was at the origins of Moldovan animation along with Anton Mater and Konstantin Balan. After graduating from VGIK (1968, with a degree in “animation artist”), he was assigned to the Moldova-film studio and assigned as a typeface designer to the combined filming workshop. This occupation, far from his true artistic abilities, did not bring him satisfaction, so he began to look for other ways of self-manifestation. So, soon L. Domnin got a job as an art editor at the publishing house “Kartya moldovenyaske”, specializing in the field of easel and book graphics for illustrating children’s books, especially fairy tales. It is necessary to note the artist’s desire to know /comprehend the specifics of Moldovan art, the peculiarities of culture, the traditions of the people. L. Domnin began his “journey” into Moldovan culture with fairy tales, which he illustrated. Fairy tales are that magical world in which the whole spectrum of the life and traditions of the people, their thinking and vision of the surrounding are displayed. It was his sensitivity to perception and understanding of national identity that helped him in his work.
At the same time, the artist collaborates with the satirical and humorous magazine “Chipăruș”, to which he devotes a lot of time. Working in the department of caricature, he proved himself to be a sensitive observer who evaluates human nature, successfully generalizing its shortcomings and weaknesses in his drawn stories on everyday topics. This genre also did not bring the artist complete enjoyment. His cherished dream since his student days was animation. Nevertheless, the offer to work on creating an animated film as a director took him by surprise, he hardly accepted this invitation, because he had no skills and had to start everything from scratch.
Having gone through all the difficulties of the pioneer, Leonid Domnin makes his debut in animation with the tape Aistenok Kich (according to the script of Zinaida Chirkova). This is a story about a stork trying to help everyone and rewarded for his kindness. The director talks about the process of creating this film, as well as the subsequent ones, with great enthusiasm in his memoirs. Illustrating children’s books “Caprele Irinucăi” (“Auntie Irinuca’s Goats”, 1970), “La scăldat” (“On the River”, 1972) by Ion Crange, the Moldovan folk tale “Dafin the Hero” (1973), the collection “Moldovan Folk Tales” (1978), etc. to a certain extent, it determined his artistic direction in animation, as well as the subject of future films.
The magical world of fairy tales, where ethical and aesthetic categories are clearly defined, where good and beauty invariably defeat evil and ugliness, becomes a spiritual refuge for the artist. Possessing a nature extremely sensitive to the vices that he tried to reveal with the help of his cartoons, L. Domnin retreats into the world of fairy tales. After all, the world of an animated fairy tale is the island on which he feels like a creator–demiurge, establishing the laws of life, paying tribute, in fairness, to each of his characters: a hardworking and kind-hearted poor man (“Maritsa”), a man who is being tested by an unclean (“You will chase someone else – you will lose your own”), showing examples of kindness with the help of the image of a stork (“Stork Kich”), giving lessons in cultural behavior to both the braggart Petrique, to whom a bee stings directly into the tip of the upturned nose (“The Braggart Petrique”), and Lionel, who offended the sun (“The boy who offended the sun”), as a result, the luminary leaves its place in the firmament and a dark cold night comes on earth. A similar ideological and artistic message is contained in Nikolai Serebryakov’s film The Great Cold (1969), where it is said that the boy offended his mother and the cold came to earth, which means spiritual coldness.
After creating the tape, Aistenok Kich Domnin decided to devote himself to animation. His subsequent cartoons were based on the scripts of George Rakovitse. So, on the basis of Moldovan folk tales, the film Maritsa is born, which received good reviews from critics. The authors, “starting from familiar motives, managed to create their own work – a real animated film with its own specifics.” Maritsa is followed by the films The Braggart Petrike (1973) and The Secret of LSU (1974) by the same authors. The director quickly gathers a working group, with the exception of the animator, who is invited from the Soyuzmultfilm studio: the animator Leonid (Lev) Zhdanov advises and helps in the process of working on these tapes. Regarding animated films for children created by L. Domnin, who had a special passion for this genre, film critic Viktor Andon notes both the folklore basis of their plots and modern themes: “L. Domnin also made two films on modern topics for children – the Braggart Petrike and the Secret of LSU instructive, with elements of humor. It remains only to regret that the movement of dolls, the color scheme in the transmission of backgrounds in films is not always at a high professional level.”
The motives of folk tales are also the basis of the film “You chase someone else – you will lose your own” (1986, script and production by L. Domnin). The author draws some parallels with such a hero of Ion Krange as Danila Prepelyak, showing a number of exchange procedures adjusted by the unclean – oxen for a cart, carts for a goat, goats for a gander. The characters are clearly outlined, have a characteristic identity, manifested in costume, behavior, voice, and even in the style of speech. The metamorphoses themselves produced by the evil one, starting from disguising themselves as different persons encountered on the way, to stones turning into a cart, goat, gander, perfectly conform to the specifics and nature of the animated film. The images have a separate value due to the elements characteristic of Moldovan culture and art. The most significant in this sense are the gates with eyes, which refers us to the symbolism of the painting by Mihai Grecu. Here the gate means openness to the world of fairy tales, and the eyes – a new look at the plot and the idea. In the director’s vision, the hero eventually regains what he has lost, and on top of that, he also gets the tail of a demon that almost confused him.
“You chase someone else – you will lose your own”
Leonid Domnin’s merit also consists in the introduction of hand-drawn technique. The first attempt to master the style of “a la Disney” was the tape “Scientific Fishermen” – the thesis of a group of animators, which he directed at the Art School named after him. Repin. In general, the idea of the film belongs to L. Domnin, who was also its screenwriter, director and production designer – from the proposal of a humorous plot full of comic episodes to the style of creating characters drawn with thick rounded lines. Regarding the choice of this technique, the director explains: “In the process of staging “Scientists Fishermen”, we also felt the advantage of a hand–drawn film – its dynamics, movement, the possibility of various transformations. We were deprived of all this in the flat-box animation, so we wanted to try to make a film in the classical technique.”
The director claims: “”Scientists Fishermen”, our first hand–drawn cartoon, had the longest life on the screen of all our films – Central Television for many years showed it once a year – on the All-Union Fisherman’s Day.” While working at the studio, L. Domnin tried to shoot satirical films for adults – “Trumpet on a Walk” (1978), based on the script of the children’s writer Vadim Chirkov. The film, which touches on environmental issues, was made without much effort and put on the All-Union screen. But this genre did not inspire the director, and he decided not to make adult films anymore.
“Scientists Fishermen”
Being an adherent of the fairy-tale genre throughout his work at the Moldova-Film studio, L. Domnin creates more than a dozen films, most of which are dedicated to young viewers. His filmography covers a wide range of fairy-tale films created both based on folk tales (“Maritsa”, “You Chase someone Else – you’ll lose Your Own”) and on the basis of literary plots (“The Tale of the Hunter” by A. Chokan, “How they Found a Friend” by V. Berestov, “The Boy Who offended the sun” by S. Lesnya). The thematic range of his films is very wide – stories from the life of animals (“Aistenok Kich”), didactic-edifying and even humorous tapes (“Scientific fishermen”), etc. Unfortunately, some of them remained at the illustrative level, which obscured some of their artistic and aesthetic glimpses.
Leonid Domnin’s contribution to Moldovan animation is indisputable. First of all, it is the training of a whole generation of young animation artists who have successfully joined the process of creating cartoons. Together with his wards, he comprehended the aesthetic trends of hand-drawn animation using the Disney method. L. Domnin was an example of professional work with the material – both in the technique of shifting (puppets) and in hand-drawn animation. He was adopted from the American master and transferred to Moldovan animation.
After leaving Moldova in 1995, Leonid Domnin wrote his memoirs about working at the Moldova-Film studio, about the creative process, about the difficulties of that time and the joy of victories, about the people he worked alongside – screenwriters, artists, directors, composers, cameramen, etc. This is a piece of history, and the path of the Moldovan animation’s ascent to the vocation, and the evaluation of films.
Author of the article: Varvara Kartushina
