Ham smokes his pipe but he does not resemble Hemingway. Only with his wisdom of the experience, visible in his blinked eyes, and this can not be concealed even with the ironic demons; only with his addiction to words. And also with the similar milestone of the Second World War: both the American author and the hero of this material killed the Nazis on the bombing aircrafts.
If eventually we stop the comparison game, the screenwriter and dramatist Ham Y. Salhanyk in one of his hypostasis is an author of four part documentary “Chornobyl: Two Colors of Time”. This is the most famous film on this subject which was created from the first days after the accident directly at the power station for several months. Being in the film crew, Ham Salhanyk received the State Prize of Taras Shevchenko (1989) for this unique work.
This is not the only one film among his works devoted to Chornobyl. It is not just the only one opportunity in his life to look death in the face. And if Ihor Kon rightly considered the capability to go beyond his own environment as a prerequisite for creativity and self-identity, Ham Yelizarovych is to be considered as a choice of muse. His fate did not stint for the boundary situations for him.
Facts of his personal history plays with a new light when we add: Ham Yelizarovych will soon be... he does not like to tell about his age. Better to count silently: the year of the birth of steadfast Salhanyk is 1923.
Olga KLEYMENOVA
Українська редакція
