The town of Hafford, Sask. has become the temporary home for the cast and crew of the film, The Keepers of Kielbasa.
“’Kielbasa’ is one of the words for a sausage that is used in Saskatchewan. Kubasa is the more Ukrainian word, but we have a play on words and a gag in the movie,” Zoe Harris said.
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Harris and her husband Doug Luciuk started writing the script two years and now are producing it as a feature-length comedy film.
The movie is being filmed in the small town of Hafford, about 100 kilometres north-west of Saskatoon.
“Hafford being a great Ukrainian community, it was a no-brainer when we decide yeah, let’s shoot it here,” Luciuk said.
The Keepers of Kielbasa is a lighthearted comedy that follows the story of three Ukrainian brothers who are amateur film makers.
Darren Zimmer is an actor, playing one of the Bubchuk brothers.
“The thing that makes this film unique is there are multiple plot lines you can follow along with this film. There is the dark villain that is looking to destroy everything. We’ve got the romantic side of things as well and we got the comedy,” said Zimmer.
Zimmer hopes this film will spark other film projects in the province.
“We have such a talent base here in this province, that it really needs to be tapped like any other resource,” said Zimmer.
The project is being filmed on a micro-budget of less than $10,000.
The filmmakers said they applied for grants on both the provincial and the federal level, but did not receive funding.
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“We didn’t want to have all this hard work, this two-year journey end with just an anti-climax of not receiving the funding we liked,” Harris said.
“We went ahead and privately funded it out of pocket. All our actors are working for free.”
Most of the filming for The Keepers of the Kielbasa will wrap up on Sunday.
The movie is expected to be released next summer.