What a lovely Christmas present for those who have fought for the right to life of the Ukrainian language!
According to this article published on December 25, 2007, all foreign films screened and/or distributed in Ukraine must be dubbed or subtitled in Ukrainian.
Unilinguists may howl about that, but they're just small-minded. It is very refined and cultured to know more than one language. And what more pleasant and painless way to learn another language than watching a movie?
Besides, studies have shown (here) that bilingualism is beneficial for the brain and mental health. Just goes to show that Ukrainians are once again (as they have always been) on the leading edge. ;-)
Thursday, January 03, 2008
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Heh! As a result of this type of policy, I ended up watching Borat last year, dubbed into parisian French, in montreal-- I have no idea how much I "missed" from not seeing it in English, but anyways back in Ottawa most people I told that to were scowling angrily at the thought of it.
Personally I'm a much bigger fan of subtitling than dubbing. Dubbing can be so clumsy, I'd rather catch the emotional nuances of the actors as they were originally speaking, even if it means that I have to read along on the bottom of the screen..
PS.-- I came across your whole site which seems like a great resource for ukrainian-Cdn music. I'll have to look at it in detail when I'm not so busy! So far I've downloaded the episodes of the radio show, so I'll be able to listen to them sometime,at least.
Hey Dan!
Thanks for dropping by ... and for the plug on your site!
Never had any desire to see Boorat, but I too prefer sub-titles. A couple of summers ago, I watched The Fire and Sword while at Ukrainian camp in Sask (a real blast, btw). I found that reading subtitles actually enhanced the experience as I could hear the native languages (Ukrainian and Polish), and also that, just as you say, the characters' emotional nuances were authentic.
Thanks for the kind words re the website. I'll definitely link to yours. And good luck with the tsymbala as well as the klezmer ... both of which I'm a HUGE fan! Hope I'll get a chance to hear your work at some point in the future.
Keep in touch!
Cool, thanks for the words of support. That movie sounds interesting, I'd like to watch it if I ever find it.
By the way, if you're interested in klezmer, take a look at this band Veretski Pass that I think formed only in the last year or two. they are pretty amazing. Here is a video interview with some clips of their music.
http://www.musiqbase.com/csus/vp/vpintro/
And here is my favorite blog, that could loosely be called a klezmer blog, but also an eastern european food sampling blog:
http://horinca.blogspot.com/
It's worth reading the back pages if you have some free time , it's nothing but interesting.
Loved the Veretski Pass clips and will definitely try to spend more time at the horinca site ... it does look intriguing!
I found that Veretski Pass has a sound very similar to some of Brian Cherwick's stuff, especially from the Kubasonics' 3rd CD, Big Beet Music, which has contempopory versions of old folk melodies along with the original traditional ones.
Another group you might find interesting does klezmer and East Euro/Jewish fusion stuff is Paris to Kyiv from Winnipeg. Their first CD has a lot of klezmer-ish tunes, and their other 3 CDs are every bit as interesting. They do a lot of touring and CBC performances so if you haven't heard of them, check 'em out and keep your eyeballs peeled!
As well, Vancouver's Zeellia does includes some East Euro/Jewish crossover/fusion as well as klezmer along with Ukrainian and East Euro folk tunes in their repertoire.
Oh, by the way, the movie is called With Fire and Sword and you can get it through Yevshan. Or check around the Ukrainian community in Ottawa, you might be able to rent or borrow it.
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