Julia Sak calls herself the Phoenix - a symbol of rebirth and transformation. Her life, full of incredible challenges, each time found salvation through art, allowing her to reach a new level of awareness and expand her horizons. In this article we will share with you unexpected facts from the life of the actress, which not only influenced her formation and shaped her as a person, but also helped to reveal her talent, allowing her to shine even brighter, showing the incredible strength of her spirit.
Three times on the brink of life and death
Yulia’s life began with a miracle. During childbirth, the doctors faced a choice: to save the mother or the daughter. But both survived. Born blue and not breathing, Yulia came to her senses, and the doctors called her ‘God-kissed’ for her unusual white face and curly black hair. Already on the second day she was twirling her arm like a ballerina, confirming her mother’s intuition.
The second ‘birth’ occurred on 1 September, when Julia was supposed to go to first grade, but ended up in the hospital. Severe toxic poisoning with complete dehydration and damage to the central nervous system led to a 12-hour coma. Risky treatment with the only life-saving but potentially allergenic drug saved her. Upon regaining consciousness, Julia saw ‘starry skies’ and spoke of ‘warlike Mars.’ Despite developing varicose veins, this did not prevent her from dancing professionally.
The third case, which occurred in 2008-2009, was mystical. Yulia faced the consequences of an induced spoilage. Terrible pains in her chest, exhaustion of up to 47kg and complete destruction of her life made her seek help. At first Yulia did not believe in spoilage, but later she herself began to look for someone who could help. Among the many weak and deceivers, found a woman who really removed the impact made on death because of jealousy and envy. Luck and health returned to Julia not immediately, but she survived it.
With the dance of life
At the age of 6, Yulia was given ballroom dancing lessons. However, after the first lesson, the teacher told her mum: “Your daughter will never dance. She has poor coordination!” This prediction turned out to be wrong. At the age of 10, Yulia suddenly discovered her dancing talent, and for many years she performed on various stages – from school to theatre and philharmonic – all over Ukraine. Her repertoire included more than 40 theatre and dance miniatures and even two circus numbers, which was a vivid proof of her strength of spirit and perseverance.
The harsh lessons of a hungry childhood
At the age of 11, after her parents divorced, Yulia and her mother faced extreme poverty. Her mother’s salary, a school teacher and head teacher, barely covered the cost of their two-room flat. During the summer holidays, they had to collect bottles every day to buy some food. Yulia bitterly humouredly called it ‘hunting’. It went on like that for several years. There were days when there was only one portion of Mivina and a few pieces of dry sausage for three people, and sometimes there was not even bread in the house. These trials certainly toughened her character.
The voice of ‘Ukrainian Maria Callas’
Since childhood, Julia was actively engaged in composition, music and singing, but she was most afraid of performing on stage. This fear sometimes became insurmountable.
A vivid example occurred at one of the Ukrainian competitions. Before going on stage, Yulia was so worked up that when she heard her own voice, breathing and swallowing saliva (the microphone was not set up for opera vocals), she panicked. Her voice began to shake, her breathing was interrupted, and the phrase ‘Ave Maria’ was torn apart. In the end, Yulia only whispered into the microphone: ‘God, what am I doing?’. Nevertheless, the judges, realising that nerves were to blame, listened to her separately after all the contestants. As a result, Yulia was awarded first place and the jury called her ‘a Ukrainian Maria Callas, but in a cave-like state’, emphasising her great potential despite her nerves.
Genius: A gift or a path?
Before the age of 20, Yulia told her vocal teacher, Lyubov Shchipchik, of her passionate desire to be a genius. In response to her teacher’s doubts, Yulia exclaimed with youthful maximalism: “This is the meaning of life for me! I even agree to be unhappy just to be a genius!”
Although the teacher’s words at first seemed like a collapse, Yulia intuitively felt that they did not apply to her. At the next lesson she showed Lyubov her photos in different images, which made the teacher think deeply and ask: ‘Don’t you want to be an actress?’. And indeed, by the will of fate, Julia became an actress, although her logical aspiration to be a singer was debunked.
It was this conversation that prompted Julia to deeply explore the phenomenon of genius. As a result, she not only learned how to distinguish a genius from a merely great person and recognise genius even in unrealised potential, but also made her own discoveries in this field. In 2020, Julia published a popular science book ‘How to Recognise Genius’, which became the embodiment of her many years of research.
A triumphant path to the theatre stage
After a series of vocal competitions, Yulia had given up participating in them. So when she was invited to a theatre festival as a guest, she accepted. However, her mono-performance ‘Anna Akhmatova’ created a furore! The head of the jury insisted on her presence at the awards ceremony, where it turned out that Julia had been secretly included among the contestants. The result was stunning: the Grand Prix for best mono-performance and best actress.
Her debut at the Actor’s House, where she was always drawn to, took place on 19 January 2006. After her performance with her own poem and a gypsy dance, everyone present raised their glasses to the ‘birth of a new star’. This success inspired Julia to organise a solo performance. The administrator Catherine Mikhailovna Navoytyuk, seeing her excitement, warmly accepted her, and already on 8 June 2006 her performance took place with a full house. The standing ovation and Ekaterina’s question: ‘Are you ready to work with us?’. – opened the way for Julia. To her frightened question: ‘Can I?’ – she heard a firm: ‘You must!’ So the Actor’s House became a second home for Yulia for many years, where she was given monthly performances.
Destiny-changing encounters
Yulia has always admired the opera singer Olga Basistiuk. What was her joy when it turned out that Olga Ivanovna regularly performed at the Actor’s House! At one of Julia’s performances, ‘Seven Female Images’, Basistiuk was in the audience and shouted ‘Bravo’. Subsequently, they crossed paths more than once, and Olga Ivanovna expressed her respect for Yulia by talking about her to her accompanist – Honoured Artist Anna Bubnova, with whom Yulia now conducts joint concert programmes.
Yulia dreamed of getting on Yuri Veresotsky’s author’s TV programme Autographs, but had no idea how it was possible. After a year of working at the Actor’s House, she was given his number. Other directors refused to work with an unknown actress, but Yuri agreed and shot not one, but two programmes at once. The management of the channel was so impressed that they wanted to show them as a priority. In the end, Yuri filmed seven programmes with Yulia. He himself said that he had a ‘light hand’, and he was right: it was with ‘Autographs’ that Yulia’s recognition began in earnest. She began to be recognised on the streets and asked for autographs, and the interview process became her favourite.
Knowing yourself through the Prototype
Yulia was helped to recognise herself fully by the prototype she created at the age of 14 – an opera singer, a man. Initially it was the image of her ideal, but over time Julia began to worry about the differences between them: unlike her, he was a bright individual not only on stage, but also in life.
Until the age of 18, Julia lived in her own world. However, it was through this prototype and her inner feelings about their differences that she discovered all the qualities she admired in him. It was incredibly difficult and required a tremendous effort of will, but she managed.
Now this Prototype helps her in many ways in her life – in making decisions, creating new works and finding inspiration. Julia is writing a big novel about him, but she doubts that she will be able to publish it in her lifetime, as it contains too many deeply personal reflections and experiences.
The road to auteur cinema
After four years of unsuccessfully searching for funding, Yulia decided to make at least a short film with her own money. Having miraculously found the money, she asked Yuri Veresotsky to make her first film, Portrait, where Yulia played a blind woman. Filming took place on Vladimir’s Hill, and all participants were blessed by a passing priest. The game Julia was so convincing that the artist who drew her portrait for the film, asked her mother if the actress is really blind, which was a huge compliment for Julia.
After ‘Portrait’ three more short films were shot, which were included in the feature film ‘A Minute of Awareness’. Director Kirill Kuzhalev worked for free, passionate about the process. On these shoots Yulia learnt the basics of filmmaking and realised that she wanted to make her own films. Yulia had no money for equipment, but fate gave her unexpected help: a new acquaintance, having learnt about her dream, offered her a loan. Thanks to this, the necessary equipment for further films was bought.
Skovoroda Prize: Miraculous Recognition
After receiving the Nechuya-Levitsky Prize for her book Bile i Chorné, Yulia learnt about the highest award of the Ukrainian Culture Foundation – the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Prize. She wanted to receive it for her film dedicated to Skovoroda, but thought it was unattainable. However, a month later she received a call from the director of the fund, Alexander Danilovich Bakumenko, who suggested submitting the film for the award. He noted that if Skovoroda was not misrepresented in her work, the chances of winning were high.
Yulia waited for a while for a decision, worrying a lot. A couple of weeks later Alexander Danilovich gave her the happy news: “Congratulations! The film is worthy of the Skovoroda Prize”. This event was a real miracle, because soon the director became seriously ill and passed away. In the ‘next year’ Julia would no longer be able to receive this award, because the new head of the foundation did not deal with such issues.
Ukraine's record and potential future achievement
Due to the fact that Yulia’s films are made without external funding and are her own ‘multi-mono’ projects, she was awarded the Record of Ukraine in the category ‘cinematography’.
Yulia has also kept daily diaries since 1995, meticulously documenting the chronicle of her life. She believes that few people keep such a detailed chronicle, and this could be another record. However, recording it requires showing the material, which is not always acceptable in the case of personal diaries.
