Mela Koteluk (real name Malwina) is an up-and-coming Polish indie pop singer. Originally from Sulechów, in far western Poland, she has been performing since 2002, though only released her first album in 2012. Before Koteluk started her solo career, she collaborated with some impressive Polish artists—Gaba Kulka, most notably, and also the band Scorpions, for […]
AnimatsiYa (АнимациЯ; translates to “animation,” with an emphasis on “I” in the Russian) is a Russian rock group that was formed in 2000 in Chistopol, Tatarstan. They’re considered to be a heavy metal/hard rock band. According to their own definition in their record-label biography, they play something called “clean rock … uniting all the traditions […]
Rayhon G’aniyeva is an Uzbek pop singer who usually goes by her first name alone. She sings mainly in Uzbek, though occasionally also in Russian. She is considered one of the most influential contemporary Uzbek pop artists. Rayhon was born in 1978 in Tashkent to an artistic family: both her parents, Tamara Shokirova and Otabek […]
Silent Souls (Овсянки; the actual translation is “Buntings,” referring to a type of bird) is a 2010 Russian drama, one of the recent crop of artistic, internationally recognized independent Russian cinema. It is based on the short story of the same name by Denis Osokin (Денис Осокин). Osokin has published quite a lot of poetry […]
Lola Yo’ldosheva (or Лола Юлдашева; and she often uses the Roman transliteration of this name, Lola Yuldasheva, rather than the Uzbek spelling) is an Uzbek pop singer, actress, and songwriter. She usually goes by her stage name, simply Lola. She sings most often in Uzbek, but sometimes in Russian as well. Lola was born in […]
Urmat Usenov (Урмат Усенов) is a Kyrgyz pop singer. These days he sings mainly in Kyrgyz, though he has recorded several songs in Russian and even occasionally sings in Turkish. Usenov grew up in Talas, a Kyrgyz village, but his parents sent him to Bishkek when he was 11 because they believed he had a […]
The Return (Возвращение) is a 2003 Russian drama, one of the most globally famous among recent-ish Russian art films. The film tells the story of two young brothers, Andrey and Ivan, whose father unexpectedly appears in their lives. The brothers have barely even met their father before this—they know him only from a single old […]
Bishkek, I Love You (Бишкек, я люблю тебя) is a 2011 Kyrgyz comedy/drama film. The film’s tagline was “The first film about your favorite city” (“Первый фильм про твой любимый город”), highlighting how its goal was not only to tell a good story but specifically to give Bishkek the film treatment it deserves. Ruslan Akun […]
Salaam, New York (Салам, Нью-Йорк) is a 2013 Kyrgyz film by director Ruslan Akun (Руслан Акун), who also directed and wrote 2011’s Bishkek, I Love You (Бишкек, я люблю тебя). Akun also wrote the film, along with Gulzhan Toktogulova (Гульжан Токтогулова). It was based on true events—Akun’s time studying at a visual arts school in […]
Jamilya (Джамилья) is a 1968 Kyrgyz drama and a classic of Kyrgyz and Russian cinema. Jamilya is based on the 1958 book of the same name by Chingiz Aitmatov (Чингиз Айтматов), who is probably Kyrgyzstan’s greatest cultural export and certainly its best-loved writer. (A statue of him stands right across from the main square in […]
A Father’s Will (Kyrgyz: Атанын керээзи; Russian: Завещание отца) is a 2016 Kyrgyz drama. It was Kyrgyzstan’s 2016 submission to the Oscars for consideration for its Best Foreign Language Film category. (Kyrgyzstan has submitted to the Oscars nine times, but has not yet made the shortlist—maybe this is their year!) The film was directed and […]
The Three Bogatyrs: The Princess of Shamakhi (Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица; also known as How Not to Rescue a Princess in English) is a Russian animated film from 2010, the fourth in the Bogatyr series from Melnitsa Studios. The film starts out with the princess of Shamakhi (a city in present-day Azerbaijan) trying to […]
