Michael Kocáb has released a new video for the song Sebastián, which he filmed at a bombed house in the Ukrainian town of Izium.
The new version of the song Sebastián, produced by Pohoda, was recorded by Kocáb during an expedition of Slovak and Czech volunteers who drove ambulances to the frontline in eastern Ukraine. He was accompanied on piano by a young Ukrainian pianist, Anastasija Shcherbakova, from the currently occupied Avdijivka. Michal Horáček's lyrics sing of suffering and truth.
19. February 2024
The video was shot in the ruins of a house in the town of Izium, which Ukrainian soldiers liberated in the autumn of 2022 and discovered a mass grave containing 400 bodies. "I had a lump in my throat when we approached the house. That building looked exactly like the house I used to live in," pianist Anastasia told Dennik N. The video was directed by young Ukrainian director AG Gospodinov. It also includes text in Ukrainian, translated by Marta Kákoni.
"Ukraine is bleeding! Whatever little we do for the Ukrainian people, we are doing for ourselves. For our safety, but most of all for our conscience," Michael Kocáb adds to the video.
Shortly after filming the clip, Michael Kocáb handed over an ambulance he had driven across Ukraine to army medics in the town of Slaviansk. The ambulance was purchased with funds from a collection initiated by Slovak photographers and journalists, and Pohoda Festival has been a long-time supporter of the collection. It is currently being continued in the Czech Republic on Donio.cz.
On his way back, Michael Kocáb was part of the Pohoda Loves Ukraine festival in Kyiv, where he played together with the band Karpatské chrbáty and other artists from Slovakia and Ukraine.