Recommendations from the Kyiv Independent: "My Thoughts are Silent" by Antonio Lukich (Patreon)

Dear readers,

I am Martin Fornusek, a news editor at the Kyiv Independent, hoping to convince you to watch my all-time favorite Ukrainian movie: “My Thoughts Are Silent.”

This 2019 comedy-drama charmed me with its subtle humor, surrealism, and oh-so-relatable humanity. It’s the one movie that I love to come back to. It never fails to lift the mood, and the intricate layers of symbolism uncover something new every time you watch it.

The film tells the story of Vadym, a freelance sound engineer hired to collect sounds of Ukrainian fauna for a Canadian video game. Seeing this as a chance to fulfill his dream and start a new life in Canada, the hero heads to his home region of Zakarpattia to record the voices of pigs, sheep, goats, and other animal life. His main prize is an elusive, purple-feathered Rakhiv Mallard, a (fictional) bird living in swamps at the Ukrainian-Romanian border.

Vadym’s plan is to get the job done as soon as possible to secure his ticket to Canada, so he is not too pleased when he is joined on his journey by his mother, Halyna. A lonely taxi driver dealing with her own anxieties, she sees the unexpected road trip as a chance to set Vadym’s life straight: “Look how I’ve lived, and do the opposite.”

The people and situations they encounter on their hunt for the ephemeral Mallard are without glamor, but full of humanity with all its kitsch, ridiculousness, and vulnerability. The journey is strewn with reappearing symbolism that hints at the unreachable nature of Vadym’s and Halyna’s desires.

Not to paint a picture too serious, the movie is also really fun and plays masterfully with visual humor. The characters and their tragicomic interactions feel sometimes bizarre, sometimes life-like, often both at the same time.

I don’t want to spoil too much for you, so go ahead and watch it! It’s available on the Ukrainian version of Netflix and on Takflix. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and that it brightens your holidays.