Slavic

Bolek and Lolek (Bolek i Lolek) is a Polish cartoon that dates back to the 1960s. It tells the story of two brothers, Bolek and Lolek (short for Bolesław and Karol), and their adventures. There are a number of seasons, so to speak, or sequels—the original Bolek and Lolek, which consists of 13 episodes, followed by Bolek and […]

Bооba (Буба; the creators chose the English-language transliteration themselves) is a pretty new Russian animated cartoon series for very young children. Begun in 2014, there are now 16 episodes of about four minutes each, and new ones are released monthly. The show it is well-regarded by the parents who’ve posted online reviews of it. Booba […]

Babay (Бабай) is a 2014 Ukrainian children’s animated film. It was made by Ukraine’s major animation studio, Ukranimafilm (Укранімафільм). In Slavic folklore, Babay is a sort of evil spirit in the shape of an old man. Parents apparently invoke him to scare their children when they aren’t listening. The film’s working title was “Who’s afraid […]

The Adventures of Kotyhoroshko and His Friends (Пригоди Котигорошка та його друзів) is a Ukrainian animated miniseries for children. It started airing in 2014 and currently consists of four short episodes of around 15 minutes each, with more episodes in the works. The show is based on Ukrainian national heroes and legends. The original Kotyhoroshko […]

Lejeune (Лежень) is a Ukrainian animated short film released in 2013. It is based on a fairy tale by beloved Ukrainian and Soviet writer Yuriy Vynnychuk (Юрій Винничук), and is part of his Lviv Tales (Львівські казки) collection. Vynnychuk was a Soviet/Ukrainian writer who, unusually for the time, wrote only in Ukrainian. His works include poetry collections […]

28 Panfilovtsev (28 панфиловцев) is a 2016 war drama directed by Kim Duzhinin (Ким Дружинин) and Andrey Shalopa (Андрей Шалопа). The initial money for the film came entirely from crowdfunding, from which the directors raised more than 34 million rubles, making it one of the most successful crowdfunded film projects to date. Recently, 28 Panfilovtsev has also received […]

Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Гражданская Оборона; translates as “civil defense”), also known as GrOb (ГрОб, “coffin” in Russian), was one of Russia’s earliest and most influential punk bands. Their earlier work is very minimalist, lo-fi punk rock, while the group began to verge toward noise rock and finally shoegaze in the 1990s. The band’s frontman, the poet […]

Krovostok (Кровосток) is a Russian hip-hop group from Moscow. Formed in 2003, Krovostok consists of Shilo (Шило, stage name of Anton Chernyak, Антон Черняк) on vocals, producer Feldman (Фельдман, stage name of Dmitri Fain, Дмитрий Файн), and beatmaker and backing vocalist Fantomas 2000 (Фантомас 2000). The band is know for their liberal use of profanity […]