Before turning to the festival story, the author recalls Odessa’s role in the development of cinema. Even before World War I and the Bolshevik coup, the city was regarded as one of the main centers of film production not only in Ukraine but across the Russian Empire.
Odessa retained that importance during the Soviet period as well. The city offered nearly ideal conditions for filmmaking: the sea, a southern climate, long sunny stretches, and historic urban architecture. It was therefore unsurprising that there were repeated attempts to establish a film festival of its own there.
One of the first such efforts was Odessa Alternative, held in 1987 at the initiative of Stanislav Govorukhin, head of the Odessa branch of the USSR Union of Cinematographers.
Despite a title that suggested a degree of artistic independence, the program mainly featured audience-oriented films from the Odessa Film Studio. These included Govorukhin’s own Ten Little Indians, A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines by Alla Surikova, A Forgotten Tune for the Flute by Eldar Ryazanov, and other films.
A year later, Govorukhin reformatted the project. The event received the status of an all-Union film festival with international participation, allowing it to avoid direct competition with the Moscow International Film Festival. It also received a new name, Golden Duke, in honor of Odessa’s first city governor, Duke de Richelieu.
In total, the Golden Duke festival was held three times, in 1988, 1990, and 1994. In essence, it was not only a showcase of perestroika-era cinema but also a socio-political act: at that time, film, along with rock music, was taking on the role of a voice of freedom.