Oleg zagorodnii gay

However, some critics find the plot clichéd and overly familiar, drawing unfavorable comparisons to 'Brokeback Mountain'. And just in case it’s not clear on which side you’re supporting, each item, cut and sewn in Ukraine, includes a blue-and-yellow affixable patch that reads “Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself.”

“It’s important, when people around the world wear it, what does it mean,” Zagorodnii says.

But that was never a consideration: “This is my motherland,” he says.

So yeah, a jacket is just a jacket. Accents, dialogue, and certain directorial choices are also critiqued. "And then I hope I will produce uniforms for the victory parade," he says. “I don’t build any plans for longterm—I just live month by month,” he says. And with every item sold, from pants to passport covers, the money is put back into outfitting Ukrainian soldiers.

Around the same time, a close friend, recently enlisting in the military, reached out in desperate need of warm clothing after being stationed in the mountains with little more than a thin uniform. Dark eyes contrast with fair skin, with brown hair neatly parted and swept from his face.

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It was in the early days of the invasion, when the country held its breath to see what would happen next, that Zagorodnii first envisioned apparel design.

"It’s as if his future is on hold until there can be peace."

As Weber photographed Zagorodnii in his Montauk studio, he remarked how the pieces, with fabric substitutions, would fit the everyman just as well as the soldier. “I have a lot of people around me who, every day, ask me, ‘How are you,’” he says.

On the right side. In 2021, he starred in Firebird, a Soviet-era romance film that was made in Estonia.

What keeps him going, and keeps his countrymen fighting, he continues, has been the support of those abroad. “When people wear this jacket, they remember that we still fight,” Zagorodnii says. In the film, Ukrainian actor Oleg Zagorodnii plays Roman (both pictured above).

Zagorodnii lives in Kyiv as his fellow Ukrainians fight for freedom against Russia’s invasion.

“Putin’s Russia is the same as the Soviet Union,” the actor declared in a video message at Firebird’s UK premiere.

“Because in Putin’s Russia [people] don’t have the opportunity to be themselves.

“In my country today, Ukraine, we fight for our freedom [and] our opportunity to be Ukrainian [and be] ourselves.”

Firebird screening in Russia sparks angry protests

Director Peeter Rebane said Firebird was a “labour of love” that has taken him years to get to the screen.

A colleague gave Rebane a copy of the book the film is based on, The Story of Roman by Sergey Fetisov, the film’s lead character.

“I read the story over the weekend, and it made me weep,” Rebane said.

“This is such a tragic, yet fascinating story.”

He quickly decided he wanted to adapt it into a movie.

“We don’t have any restaurants, all clothes shops are closed, all travel, you don’t have any opportunity because you’re stuck in Ukraine,” he says. Weber has previously shot for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Gianni Versace, and others, but he was quickly drawn to Zagorodnii.

"[Zagorodnii] told us harrowing stories of the bombings in his neighborhood, which made the reality of this war very personal," Weber says.

But the symbol itself can mean so much more than its component fabrics.