Ukrainian

The Last Muscovite (Останній Москаль in Ukrainian) is a contemporary Ukrainian TV show. According to the show’s official website, the show is “a patriotic Ukrainian-language comedy” (indeed, “patriotic” and “Ukrainian-language” often go hand-in-hand, as many Ukrainian shows and films are actually in Russian). It should also be pointed out that “Москаль” is actually an ethnic slur in […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

OrAngeLove (Оранжлав; the stylized capitalization is a feature of the English-language title) is a Ukrainian 2009 drama about love, AIDS, and the 2005 Orange Revolution. The film takes place vaguely against the background of the Orange Revolution, but worlds apart from it. Two people, Katya and Roman, after falling in love on a trolleybus, have locked […]

Orange Sky (Помаранчеве небо) is a 2006 Ukrainian film that turns the 2005 Orange Revolution into a love story. The film’s tag line, “Revolution is love” (“Революція—це кохання”), is a pretty neat expression of the film’s content. The film tells the story of Mark Zaduhka (Марк Задуха), one of Ukraine’s so-called “golden youth.” He’s from […]