Slavic

Jacek Kaczmarski is a legendary Polish singer-songwriter, poet, and writer. He is famous for both his art and his political activities, a combination that has made him a celebrated Polish figure among academics—his work and life has been much studied—readers, music fans, and many others. Kaczmarski was born in Warsaw in 1957 to a Polish-Jewish […]

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. […]

Luntik, or, in full, The Adventures of Luntik and His Friends (Приключения Лунтика и его друзей), is a contemporary Russian children’s cartoon series. Begun in 2006, it already has more than 450 five-minute episodes, and more are currently being planned. The show tells the story of Luntik, a cute little four-eared creature who grew up on the […]

Smeshariki (Смешарики; taken from the words смешные, “funny,” and шарики, “balloons”) is a Russian cartoon series for young children. It tells of the daily lives and occasional adventures of nine little balloon-creatures. Thus far, the show, which started in 2004, consists of more than 450 episodes of around 10 minutes each. It sounds silly, but the […]