56 years, 89 titles and a single story about Ukraine

Few weeks ago while doing my research I found out a very interesting research that concerns the portrayal of Ukrainians in the US media. "56 years, 89 titles and a single story about Ukraine" is a collection of episodes from US movies where words "Ukraine" or "Ukrainian" were mentioned. The author of this research just tells that the image of Ukraine in American movies is highly stereotyped, but he doesn't go into details. So, I did it. Using this material, I tried to analyse these scenes in order to see what image of Ukraine Hollywood propose to its viewer. So, here is what I found.

First of all, American filmmakers associate Ukraine with corruption and gangsterism. In these movies Ukrainians often are shown as ignorant criminals or prostitutes who don’t respect law.

Heroes of analysed movies often refer to Ukraine while making some negative comments or mockery comparisons. For example, a sarcastic phrase said by the hero in the moment of irritation "Where are we? In Ukraine!?"

Ukrainian emigrant in America is usually depicted as a person who loves his or her country, but had to leave it because there is no opportunity to make a decent living. However, as movies show, life is not going to be easier in the USA. Most of Ukrainians who had a good career back home, now have to work as maid, housekeeper, cleaner, waiter or salesperson. Moreover, they often are humiliated
and are not held in respect by their boss.

Nevertheless, there were also some positive stereotypes. For example, beautiful landscapes, fertile land and people occupied in farming and agriculture.

Also I really like the fact that a few movies emphasized the difference between Ukrainians and Russians, telling that they are not the same, not even the similar people.

For decades Hollywood has been using the stereotypical image of Ukraine as a country of Chornobyl, a land of corruption and crime, a place with no opportunities and no future.  And I’m not saying that all these things are not true. Yes, we do have a lot of problems and some of them are mentioned in these movies. But the thing is that these problems do not define us. Ukraine is such a big, beautiful and diverse country. It is much more than all these stereotypes and clichés.

The author of this collection ends his work with a very good question asking "Maybe it is just the right time to rethink Ukraine?" Well, I think the answer is obvious.