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 […]
Unforgotten Shadows (Тіні незабутих предків; literally translates as “Shadows of Unforgotten Ancestors”) is a 2013 Ukrainian mystical thriller. The film starts out in the early 1800s, in the Carpathian Mountains, near Transylvania. We see the legend of the molfar (), a group of nine magicians who are fighting against the evil spirits that run wild in the […]
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Зима у вогні: Боротьба України за свободу) is a 2015 documentary film about Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests. Told in English, Ukrainian, and Russian and composed of real footage from the protests, it is an on-the-ground, heartrending, and occasionally graphic look at Ukraine’s recent history. The film travels through the […]
Night Watch (Ночной дозор) is a 2004 Russian urban fantasy film. It is based on the book of the same name by Sergei Lukyanenko (Сергей Лукьяненко). The book—it is the first in a series of six so far—was published in 1998 and has become a Russian, and then global, phenomenon. It is about a secondary […]
Sofia Rotaru (Софiя Ротару) is an enormously popular and influential Soviet, Ukrainian, and Romanian/Moldovan singer. Her career has lasted almost 50 years and is still going, and she has not only won most of the major music awards and lifetime achievement awards, but she is also a People’s Artist of both Ukraine and Moldova and a […]
Rosava (Росава; real name Olena Yanchuk, Олена Янчук) is a contemporary Ukrainian folk, electronica, and pop singer. She has been on the scene since 2001, with varying degrees of popularity, and has recently had something of a resurgence, appearing in the top ten of Ukraine’s hit parades. Rosava grew up near Kyiv in a musical family. Her father […]
Zlata Ognevich (Злата Огнєвіч; real name Inna Leonidivna Bordyug, Інна Леонідівна Бордюг) is a Ukrainian pop singer and political activist. She sings mainly in Ukrainian, though sometimes also in Russian and English. Ognevich was born in Murmansk, Russia, to Serbian and Italian parents, but they moved to Sudak, a city in Crimea, when she was […]
