Liubov Sliusareva’s 25-minute documentary The Hooligan Project follows Ukrainian theatre group Hooligan Art Community as they work with young artists in Cornwall following their displacement to the UK by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Commissioned by The Ladder for the Harbour Festival in September 2024, Hooligan Art Community developed an original piece of music-theatre with local 18-35 year olds at The Pearl Exchange in Bude, in response to the story of actor Simeon ‘Sam’ Kyslyi’s teenage years as a football hooligan. (Sam used to fight in brutal competitions against rival football supporters in the east of Ukraine, while at the same time studying to be an actor, covering his bruises with make-up before going on stage.) The documentary follows the participants as they explore what Sam’s story means to them as creative people seeking connection in North Cornwall.
The screening of the film will be followed by a discussion with Peter Cant, Artistic Director of Hooligan Art Community, Fliss Loxley, Managing Director of The Pearl Exchange, filmmaker Liubov Sliusareva, and participants involved in the project. It will open up a dialogue around how organisations and artists bring contemporary arts practices to communities, looking at the way in which The Hooligan Project bridges the gaps between participation, access and aspiration. We would like to thank Helston CIC whose support has made it possible for Liubov Sliusareva to attend.
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Hooligan Art Community was founded by Ukrainian actors with British director Peter Cant in Kyiv in 2019. Their first production Hooligan took over the empty factory floors of a building in Kyiv and was based on the story of actor Simeon ‘Sam’ Kyslyi’s teenage years as a football hooligan. Sam used to fight in brutal competitions against rival football supporters in the east of Ukraine, while at the same time studying to be an actor and would cover his bruises with make-up before going on stage.
In 2024 Hooligan Art Community piloted a new project with young artists in Cornwall. A new performance group of 18-35 year olds was created at The Pearl Exchange, Bude and an original piece of music-theatre was developed and performed with those artists in response to the themes of Sam’s story. The Hooligan Project was performed in September at Harbour Festival in Redruth by the participants and Hooligan Art Community’s team, including Sam.
While Sam’s story provides a window into the violent subcultures that some teenage boys and young men resort to in search of belonging or to overcome fear, the process by which the show was made in collaboration with participants developed a parallel narrative about the power and attraction of groups for young people living in isolation.
In Liubov Sliusareva’s documentary The Hooligan Project, the filmmaker follows the participants as they work on what Sam’s story means to them as creative people seeking connection in North Cornwall, and a new creative community emerges in delicate counterpoint to Sam’s elegy for the hooligan firm of his youth.
Liubov Sliusareva is a filmmaker and photographer who makes work that celebrates light and punk in a capitalist world. She is art director and resident filmmaker for Hooligan Art Community. Her film 24.Reconstruction was showcased at Berliner Theatertreffen 2023. She received her MA in Directing from University of the Arts and is a Royal Television Society Scholar.
The evening is part of a series of events with which Hooligan Art Community is marking the third anniversary since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on 24th February 2022.