The star of the TV series “Pershi Lastivki”, “Tikha Nava”, “BozheVilni” Anastasia Pustovit said that Ukrainian cinema lacks realistic female images that would reflect real life during the war. According to her, “ideal” heroines still dominate the screens, while the reality of Ukrainian women – with fatigue, stress and physical changes – is practically not represented.

Pustovit spoke about this in an interview with Suspilny, answering a question from journalist Elizaveta Tsaregradskaya regarding the standards of appearance of actresses and how the perception of the female image in society is changing. She noted that the problem remains relevant, despite active discussions in recent years.

The actress drew attention to the trend of returning to rigid standards of thinness, which, in her opinion, have nothing to do with reality.

“We see this general wave of Ozempic women and this unhealthy, strange thinness is returning again,” she noted.

At the same time, Pustovit emphasized that the profession of an actress involves working with the body, in particular changing weight for roles. She called such transformations an interesting creative process if they occur in adequate conditions and for a quality project.

" Of course, the story of losing or gaining weight for a role is interesting, because it changes your body, its shape, its capabilities. If it’s a really cool project, if there’s time for it and you can do it normally, adequately, I like it,” explained the actress.

However, the key problem, according to her, remains the gap between the image of the actress on the screen and the real woman in Ukraine, who lives in conditions of a full-scale war. Pustovit noted that constant stress, lack of sleep and anxiety inevitably affect appearance and well-being, but this is almost not reflected in the cinema, although it should have been.

" We try to go to the gym, do physical health, take some tests, but one way or another, due to lack of sleep and stress, we change. We’re getting fatter, maybe we don’t look as fresh,” she said.

In her opinion, ignoring this experience creates a feeling of separation of screen reality from life.

Pustovit noted that the appearance of such heroines in films is important for an honest dialogue with the viewer.

“If we don’t confront reality, if we see ideal women on the screen who, in fact, also slept in a bomb shelter and experienced these four years of war, then it seems strange to me. I would like more real characters,” she explained.

The actress added that she is not against self-care and professional requirements for appearance, but calls for greater truthfulness.