Trad.Attack! is one of Estonia’s most popular contemporary bands. Blending folk, rock, and traditional Estonian melodies, they’ve toured the world, expanding the reach of Estonian music. According to their website, “Trad.Attack! has really turned the Estonian music scene upside down by bringing traditional music to the big stages, building a modern world around its archaic […]
I’m Ivan, You’re Abraham (Я — Іван, ты — Абрам) is a 1993 French–Belarusian film. It is in Belarusian, Polish, and Yiddish. The film was Belarus’s 1994 submission to the Academy Awards for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film (and one of only two films independent Belarus has ever submitted). The film takes place in […]
Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus is a 2014 documentary about the Belarusian Free Theatre, an underground theater and political opposition group in Belarus. It was produced by HBO but is partly in Belarusian. The theater has been operating since 2005. It uses art as a means of resistance, putting on plays that highlight the […]
Viva Belarus! (Жыве Беларусь! in Belarusian; Żywie Biełaruś! in Polish) is a 2012 Polish documentary about Belarus, based on true events. It was directed by the Polish director Krzysztof Łukaszewicz and produced in Poland, but its actors are all Belarusian and the main language of the film is Belarusian. The film tells the story of Miron Zakharko, who […]
Max Korzh (Макс Корж) is a contemporary Belarusian rap/hip-hop singer. While most of his music is in Russian, he does have the odd song or video clip that includes some Belarusian. Korzh attended musical school outside Brest, Belarus, and founded his first band, LunClan, with some friends when he was 16. The band, along with his next […]
Krambambula (Крамбамбуля) is a Belarusian rock group. The name is taken from a Belarusian folk drink made of honey, vodka, and spices. The group is on the Belarusian government’s extensive unofficial blacklist of artists and musicians. The group was formed by Lyavon Volski (Лявон Вольскі) in 2001. At the time, he was also a member […]
Irina Dorofeeva (Ірына Дарафеева in Belarusian, Ирина Дорофеева in Russian) is one of Belarus’s most well-known singers and, as of recently, a political figure Dorofeeva got her musical start at age 12, when she became the soloist of a youth vocal-instrumental ensemble, Rainbow (Радуга), in Mogilev, the Belarusian city where she grew up. Over her early teenage […]
Naviband or NAVI (the group alternates between the two names, both written in the Latin alphabet) is a contemporary Belarusian folk/alternative rock band. They sing in both Belarusian and Russian. The group’s leaders have said that they don’t plan in advance whether a song will be in Belarusian or Russian; they just go with what seems […]
N.R.M. (it stands for Незалежная Рэспубліка Мроя, or Independent Republic of Mroya—the group writes the initials in the Roman alphabet) is a Belarusian rock group. They sing almost exclusively in Belarusian (as opposed to Russian). The group was founded in 1994 as a continuation of legendary Belarusian rock group Mroya (Мроя; Belarusian for “dream”), in an […]
Helpful Hints (Корисні підказки) is a contemporary Ukrainian cartoon. It premiered in 2013 and airs on PlusPlus (ПлюсПлюс), a Ukrainian children’s/family TV channel that is part of 1+1 Media, one of the main Ukrainian domestic channels. Each episode is about 10 minutes, and there are about 40 in total. The show is explicitly educational and meant […]
Friends (Przyjaciółki) is a Polish primetime drama that has been airing since 2012. There are more than 100 45-minute episodes in its nine seasons, and it is still going strong. Despite the name and the main conceit, it has very little in common with the American Friends. The show takes place in Warsaw, and follows four […]
07 Come In (07 zgłoś się) is a Polish drama/police procedural that aired during the late communist era, from 1976 to 1987, with a number of breaks (there are only 20 episodes over its five seasons). The show is controversial for its heavy dose of propaganda, but at the same time it’s considered one of the best Polish […]
