Baltic View is a new project that aims to get films from the Baltics—both documentary and feature—to a wider audience. The project currently consists of 12 films uploaded on the video-sharing site Vimeo. In the founders’ own words, the project “is a pioneering international project presenting films from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia under one cinema flag.” […]
The Trap (Пастка in Ukrainian, Ловушка in Russian) is a Russian/Ukrainian drama TV series that began airing in 2013. Each episode is about 40 minutes. It is a remake of a popular Armenian TV series, Vorohayt (Ворогайт in Cyrillic). It seems that the show was initially filmed by a Russian–Ukrainian partnership, but political events got in the way in […]
Rodzinka.pl is a pretty long-running Polish sitcom. It began airing in 2011 and is currently in its tenth season (actually, the season just started on March 3). There are a bit more than 200 episodes to date. The show is about a happy family living near Warsaw: happily married young parents, Natalia and Ludwik, plus […]
Everlasting (Бессмертник in Russian, Безсмертник in Ukrainian) is a Ukrainian melodrama. It spans four seasons, 100 episodes in total. It finished its run in 2015, and was one of the most popular TV shows in Ukraine while it was running. It is mostly in Russian, with Ukrainian subtitles; the star, Marina Dyakonenko, has acted in […]
In-Laws (Сваты in Russian; Свати in Ukrainian) is a Ukrainian, Russian-language, sitcom that was on the air from 2008 to 2013. There are six seasons, a film (actually, a musical!), and a few special episodes and spin-offs. Supposedly a seventh season is in the works, but it’s not clear when, if ever, it will be released. […]
For Better or For Worse (Na dobre i na złe) is a Polish medical drama that’s been airing since 1999. It’s one of the longest-running Polish TV shows ever, with more than 600 45-minute episodes. The show is essentially your standard medical drama; it takes place at a hospital in a small town near Warsaw […]
Holy War (Święta wojna) is a Polish sitcom that ran from 2000 to 2009. It takes place in Katowice, and much of the dialogue is in the Silesian dialect, a version of Polish influenced by German that is spoken in parts of Poland and the Czech Republic. The TV show is about a husband and wife […]
L for Love (M jak milość) is a long-running Polish drama/soap opera. It’s been airing since 2000, and there are more than 1,000 episodes in its 17 seasons. It is the most-watched TV show in Poland. The show follows the large, sprawling Mostowiak family and all their relatives and in-laws. (There has been a massive cast of […]
The World According to Kiepskich (Świat według Kiepskich) is a Polish sitcom that’s been airing since 1999. It’s one of the more popular and long-running shows in the world of Polish television. There have already been 28 seasons and more than 500 episodes. Apparently it is the second-longest-running sitcom in the world, after The Simpsons. The show […]
Kitchen (Кухня) is Russia’s favorite recent sitcom. Spanning six seasons and a movie (!), it aired between 2012 and 2016 and has since led to a spin-off, Hotel Eleon (Отель Элеон), about some of the favorite secondary characters. A second movie should appear in 2017. The show takes part mostly in the eponymous kitchen, in one […]
Streets of Smashed Lampposts (Улицы разбитых фонарей), or Menty (Менты; a usually derogatory word for cops) is a long-running Russian police procedural. It’s been going since 1998, and there are now 16 seasons. Each episode features a different case to be solved, while also describing the everyday lives of Russian police officers; it’s similar in some ways […]
Since 2009, the Republic of Tatarstan has begun to develop its own native animation industry—meaning that Tatar language-learners (and Tatar children) have a new source of material at their disposal. Many of the cartoons are released in multiple languages, including not only Tatar, but also Russian and English. The cartoons come from Tatarmultfilm (Татармультфильм), a […]
