Slavic

Black Lightning (Чёрная молния) is a 2009 Russian fantasy/adventure/superhero film. It is about a 1966-issue Volga car (one of the Soviet Union’s makes) that Dmitry Maikov, a high school student, is given by his father. It turns out that the car can actually fly … and it contains missile launchers. Dmitry goes through multiple changes […]

Taras Bulba (Тарас Бульба) is a 2009 Russian historical drama based on the Gogol story of the same name. The story, first published in the 1830s, is about a Zaporozhian Cossack (a Ukrainian self-governing military tribe) colonel, Taras Bulba—loosely based on some historical figures—and his sons, who join the war against Poland. Much of the […]

Aya RL is a Polish electronica/psychedelic rock group founded in 1983 in Jarocin, at a music festival. The already-established Polish-Russian soloist Igor Czerniawski (drums, keyboard, vocals) met the members of the band Hook, composed of Paweł Kukiz (percussion, vocals) and Jarek (Jarosław) Lach (guitar), and they formed a trio, originally under the name Aya Red […]

We’re From the Future 2 (Мы из будущего 2; also Paradox Soldiers in English) is a 2010 Russian film. It is the sequel to the 2008 We’re From the Future. Both are war/drama/fantasy films about time travel. In the first film, the four heroes accidentally went back in time and had to fight in World […]

Twists and Turns (Выкрутасы; also called Lucky Trouble in English) is a 2010 Russian romantic comedy. It stars Milla Jovovich (Милла Йовович), the Ukrainian-American actress who also speaks Russian, and it was directed by Levan Gabriadze (Леван Габриадзе), who directed two of the Christmas Trees (Ёлки) movies. Russian actress Galina Loginova (Галина Логинова), Jovovich’s real-life […]

Love Is a Carrot 3 (Любовь-морковь 3) is the third in the Love Is a Carrot trilogy, Russia’s own version of Freaky Friday. (“Love is a carrot” is a Russian phrase that, drawing on the silly-sounding rhyme between the words любовь, love, and морковь, carrot, dismisses love as something silly or cutesy. It’s often used […]

Fixiki (Фиксики—the unusual spelling of the transliteration is due to the fact that the Russian word is actually taken from the English word “fix”) is a contemporary Russian cartoon series. It is based on the story “Warranty People” (“Гарантийные Человеки”) by Soviet/Russian writer Edward Uspenskiy (Эдуард Успенский), about small people who live inside machines and electronics and […]

The Barboskins (Барбоскины) is a contemporary Russian cartoon series. It began in 2011, and is already on its 10th season. It is created by Melnitsa Studios, the same people behind Luntik and the Ivan Tsarevich film series. There are almost 200 episodes, each about five minutes. The show is about a family of humanlike dogs—two parent dogs and five puppies. […]