Ukrainian

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 […]

The Undefeated (Нескорений) is a 2000 Ukrainian drama about Roman Shukhevich (alias Taras Chuprynka), the leader of a Ukrainian insurgent army during and after World War II. The real-life Shukhevich grew up in Lwów, which at the time was part of Poland, though he and his family were ethnically Ukrainian. He joined the Ukrainian Military Organization […]

Fuzhou, or Waiting for a Cargo on the Fuzhou Run by the Pagoda (Фучжоу; Очікуючи вантаж на рейді Фучжоу біля пагоди), is a 1993 Ukrainian classic drama/love story. The film takes place in several locations across the world—Ukrainian villages, the Florida coast, the Bermuda triangle—united by the motif of the wind. The main characters, the couple Orest and […]

Unforgotten Shadows (Тіні незабутих предків; literally translates as “Shadows of Unforgotten Ancestors”) is a 2013 Ukrainian mystical thriller. The film starts out in the early 1800s, in the Carpathian Mountains, near Transylvania. We see the legend of the molfar (), a group of nine magicians who are fighting against the evil spirits that run wild in the […]

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Зима у вогні: Боротьба України за свободу) is a 2015 documentary film about Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests. Told in English, Ukrainian, and Russian and composed of real footage from the protests, it is an on-the-ground, heartrending, and occasionally graphic look at Ukraine’s recent history. The film travels through the […]

Tanok na Maidani Kongo  (Танок на майдані Конґо, better known as TNMK; translates to “dance at the Congo Square”) is the most successful Ukrainian hip-hop group ever. They are known for mixing elements of rock, funk, and jazz into their sound, and for playing real instruments rather than using samples during their live shows. They have […]

Таras Коmpanichenkо (Тарас Компаніченко) is an influential Ukrainian singer-songwriter, recording artist, kobzar, banduryst (a player of the Ukrainian bandura), lutenist, lira player, and composer. Коmpanichenkо is an active participant in the Kobzar Guild (Kobzarskyi Tsekh) as well as the musical ensembles Chorea Kozacka (Хорея Козацька) and Sarmatica (Сарматика). He was an active participant in the […]

Taras Chubay (Тарас Григорович Чубай) is Ukrainian rock musician, poet, singer, composer, and leader of the seminal Ukrainian rock band Plach Yeremii (Плач Єремії). Through his poetic sensibilities and popular music, Chubay played a major role in the development of post-Soviet Ukrainian art. Chubay was born in 1970 in the city of Lviv, Ukraine. His […]