Thursday 27 August 2009

I Want To Live In The Ukraine.

(This is the second blog post in a single day that I've copped from Everett True; he in turn picked it up from Eddie Campbell, of all people.)

So it seems that in The Ukraine recently, they had one those big TV talent contests, rather like the ones I'm led to believe dominate British TV at the moment.

Y'know, a "Ukraine's Got Talent" kinda thing, with hapless rubes seeking fame, millions of people watching the finale, a huge public vote etc etc.

This was the winner:

3 comments:

Grant said...

At the point where everyone's broken down in tears, I get the feeling there's a part of the story I'm missing.

And yet still strangely affected by the sand.

Grant said...

Got it. The song "Cranes."

From a reddit comment:
>>>
Ok some Russian history behind this. The first drawing is just her intro which turns in to the authentic and real live broadcast of the Nazi Germany invasion of the Soviet Union--which touched every Russian very deeply and not in a good way. The song behind that is the rallying song that every Soviet knows by heart

At 5:10, you hit this song which is cranes [see here])http://www.globalaffairs.org/forum/global-military-issues/69793-cranes.html) on and I can't explain how it touches people in FSU, I can't think of an equal in American culture--but then again, America was not as touched, raped, pillaged, bombarded like the Soviets war. Their relationship with war and soldiers is almost the opposite of what it is here. Soldiers = the soul of Russia.

At about 7 mins, she draws a "Maryak" Soviet/Russian Navy Soldier saying good bye...... Read More

She ends with, "ti vsegda radom": You are always near.
<<<<

Ben said...

Thanks for the research Grant!

I too got the feeling that there were some heavy culture-specific elements to this that I wasn't picking up on, although the universal narrative of happiness / war / disaster / survival & reconciliation comes across pretty clearly, especially given the startling beauty of some of her imagery.