Slavic

Tina Karol (Тіна Кароль) is a popular Ukrainian singer, one of the brightest lights in the Ukrainian music scene over the last 10 years. Her career started in 2005 and she’s still reaching the tops of Ukrainian hit parades today. She’s often considered a pop singer, but her soulful voice and the baroque instrumentation she uses puts […]

Taisiya Povaliy (Таїсія Повалій) is a classic Soviet and Ukrainian pop and shanson singer. Born in 1964 near Kyiv to a musical family, Povaliy attended music school in Kyiv and then worked at a music hall for a few yeas before starting a solo career. She won a number of Soviet music contests at the beginning of […]

Alyosha (Альоша; real name Olena Kucher, Олена Кучер) is a well-known contemporary Ukrainian pop singer and songwriter who has written hits for both herself and other artists. She is known both for her male name—“Alyosha” is usually a diminutive of “Aleksey”—and, of course, her singing. Her website introduces her thus: “In her character, as well […]

Brothers. The Last Confession (Брати. Остання сповідь) is a 2013 Ukrainian drama film. Though its source material—the novel Sweetness by Swedish writer Torgny Lindgren—is foreign, the film adaptation has turned it into a fully Ukrainian work of art. The film tells the story of two brothers, Voytko (Войтко, played by Oleg Mosiychuk, Олег Мосійчук) and Stanislav (Станіслав, […]

Aurora (Аврора) is a 2006 Ukrainian drama that puts a human face on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The film is in both Russian and Ukrainian. The film takes place in the 1980s and tells the story of adolescent Aurora (played by Анастасія Зюркалова), who lives in an orphanage in Pripyat, Ukraine (Прип’ять), and dreams of […]

Illusion of Fear (Ілюзія страху) is a 2008 Ukrainian drama/thriller film. It is the screen adaptation of a novel by Oleksandr Turchynov (Олександр Турчинов), a Ukrainian politician—he is currently the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, and was the acting president of Ukraine after Yanokovych’s ouster, before Poroshenko took office. In terms of […]

Firecrosser (Той, хто пройшов крізь вогонь; also written ТойХтоПройшовКрізьВогонь, or “one who passes through fire” when translated directly) is a Ukrainian drama/adventure film from 2011. The film is based on the life story of Ivan Datsenko (Іван Даценко)—or rather, the version of his life that a comrade-in-arms supposedly uncovered. (You can’t make this stuff up, after all.) […]

Lama (Лама; they usually use the Latin transliteration, though) is a Ukrainian pop-rock band founded in 2005. They sing exclusively in Ukrainian. The current members are singer Natalya Dzenkiv (Наталя Дзеньків), guitarist Andriy Alekseev (Андрій Алексеєв), bass guitarist Zurab Rogava (Зураб Рогава), synthesizer-ist Zheka Kobzaruk (Жека Кобзарук), and drummer Dmitro “ZI” Suprunyuk (Дмитро “ZI” Супрунюк). […]