A legendary movie camera was being attempted to be taken from Ukraine to the Czech Republic, customs officials stopped the attempt, the State Customs Service reported on Wednesday, writes UNN.
Details
They wanted to send a real rarity - a "Konvas-automat 1KSR" movie camera from 1957 - abroad in a parcel. This is a legendary handheld camera, which experts call the prototype of modern action cameras like GoPro.
As experts from the Boris Paton State Polytechnic Museum at KPI named after Igor Sikorsky found out, the camera is not just a rarity - it has significant cultural and historical value.
This type of camera was used on Soviet Vostok spacecraft, actively used in Ukrainian film studios - Ukrtelefilm, Ukrkinochronika, O. Dovzhenko Film Studio and others. They allowed filming not with static shots, panoramas or crane or trolley shots, but in motion from the hands, from a car, boat, plane - ideal for documentary and chronicle. "Konvas" opened new horizons for Soviet and Ukrainian cinema in the middle of the twentieth century. According to experts, similar cameras can still be used.
According to Ukrainian law, a special certificate is required to export cultural property abroad. In this case, there was no such document, so the camera was seized.
"The find may replenish the Museum Fund of Ukraine and take an honorable place among the technical exhibits that preserve the history of our cinema," the customs service emphasized.