Twists and Turns (Выкрутасы; also called Lucky Trouble in English) is a 2010 Russian romantic comedy. It stars Milla Jovovich (Милла Йовович), the Ukrainian-American actress who also speaks Russian, and it was directed by Levan Gabriadze (Леван Габриадзе), who directed two of the Christmas Trees (Ёлки) movies. Russian actress Galina Loginova (Галина Логинова), Jovovich’s real-life […]
Love Is a Carrot 3 (Любовь-морковь 3) is the third in the Love Is a Carrot trilogy, Russia’s own version of Freaky Friday. (“Love is a carrot” is a Russian phrase that, drawing on the silly-sounding rhyme between the words любовь, love, and морковь, carrot, dismisses love as something silly or cutesy. It’s often used […]
Magical Journey (Керемет көч) is a Kyrgyz children’s animated television series. It began in 2006 and was the first Kyrgyz-language cartoon produced in independent Kyrgyzstan. Like many Russian cartoons, it has an educational goal—to teach children how to deal with unpleasant situations, avoid unnecessary conflicts, build self-esteem, and uncover their potential. The show is a social […]
Fixiki (Фиксики—the unusual spelling of the transliteration is due to the fact that the Russian word is actually taken from the English word “fix”) is a contemporary Russian cartoon series. It is based on the story “Warranty People” (“Гарантийные Человеки”) by Soviet/Russian writer Edward Uspenskiy (Эдуард Успенский), about small people who live inside machines and electronics and […]
The Barboskins (Барбоскины) is a contemporary Russian cartoon series. It began in 2011, and is already on its 10th season. It is created by Melnitsa Studios, the same people behind Luntik and the Ivan Tsarevich film series. There are almost 200 episodes, each about five minutes. The show is about a family of humanlike dogs—two parent dogs and five puppies. […]
Luntik, or, in full, The Adventures of Luntik and His Friends (Приключения Лунтика и его друзей), is a contemporary Russian children’s cartoon series. Begun in 2006, it already has more than 450 five-minute episodes, and more are currently being planned. The show tells the story of Luntik, a cute little four-eared creature who grew up on the […]
Smeshariki (Смешарики; taken from the words смешные, “funny,” and шарики, “balloons”) is a Russian cartoon series for young children. It tells of the daily lives and occasional adventures of nine little balloon-creatures. Thus far, the show, which started in 2004, consists of more than 450 episodes of around 10 minutes each. It sounds silly, but the […]
Masha and the Bear (Маша и Медведь) is a highly popular Russian cartoon series that originated in 2009. Now in its eighth year and its third season, it consists so far of 60 seven-minute episodes, featuring cute animation and few words. It’s already a classic—among not only Russian children but also students of the Russian language. The […]
OrAngeLove (Оранжлав; the stylized capitalization is a feature of the English-language title) is a Ukrainian 2009 drama about love, AIDS, and the 2005 Orange Revolution. The film takes place vaguely against the background of the Orange Revolution, but worlds apart from it. Two people, Katya and Roman, after falling in love on a trolleybus, have locked […]
Orange Sky (Помаранчеве небо) is a 2006 Ukrainian film that turns the 2005 Orange Revolution into a love story. The film’s tag line, “Revolution is love” (“Революція—це кохання”), is a pretty neat expression of the film’s content. The film tells the story of Mark Zaduhka (Марк Задуха), one of Ukraine’s so-called “golden youth.” He’s from […]
The Undefeated (Нескорений) is a 2000 Ukrainian drama about Roman Shukhevich (alias Taras Chuprynka), the leader of a Ukrainian insurgent army during and after World War II. The real-life Shukhevich grew up in Lwów, which at the time was part of Poland, though he and his family were ethnically Ukrainian. He joined the Ukrainian Military Organization […]
Fuzhou, or Waiting for a Cargo on the Fuzhou Run by the Pagoda (Фучжоу; Очікуючи вантаж на рейді Фучжоу біля пагоди), is a 1993 Ukrainian classic drama/love story. The film takes place in several locations across the world—Ukrainian villages, the Florida coast, the Bermuda triangle—united by the motif of the wind. The main characters, the couple Orest and […]
