AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In Ukraine, holiday cheer can be hard to come by in wartime. But one seasonal tradition there is still going strong. One of the national TV channels broadcasts the movie "Home Alone." Since the 1990s, families in Ukraine have gathered between Christmas and New Year's to watch the film. NPR's Brian Mann reports from Kyiv on why this movie resonates with Ukrainians.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: On a dark winter evening, Anna Bondarenko, who's 41, walks through one of Kyiv's downtown shopping districts with her son and daughter. She says she was a little girl when "Home Alone" first screened here.
ANNA BONDARENKO: It was so funny, and watching this film is all this - make good New Year feelings. My children also like to watch this film.
MANN: The movie stars a young Macaulay Culkin as Kevin. It's the story of a little boy forgotten by his parents when they leave on Christmas holiday. He wages a slapstick battle against crooks trying to rob his family's home.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOME ALONE")
MACAULAY CULKIN: (As Kevin McCallister) You guys give up, or you thirsty for more?
MANN: "Home Alone" premiered in the U.S. during the holidays in 1990. It was a hit again when it first aired in Ukraine three years later. Pirated videotapes of the movie spread fast. Bondarenko says people here love Kevin's story.
BONDARENKO: Because it's really small kid, it's a universal language. So it's funny, and we all like small kids. It's lovely.
MANN: Bondarenko's son, Sasha, speaks up. He's 10 years old and says he, too, looks forward to the movie every year. His favorite scene is when one of the bad guys tries to break in by crawling through the pet door.
SASHA BONDARENKO: When the robber gets in this, like, door for dogs or cats and he has, like, shotgun or something. And he say, hello, my little friend.
MANN: Sasha is actually embellishing that scene just a little.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOME ALONE")
JOE PESCI: (As Harry Lime) We're not going to hurt you.
DANIEL STERN: (As Marv Murchins) No. No.
MANN: Here's how it plays out in the Ukrainian version.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOME ALONE")
OLENA UZLYUK: (As Kevin McCallister) Hello. (Non-English language spoken).
OLEKSANDR ZAVALSKYY: (As Harry Lime) Ah, ah. Yah.
(As Marv Murchins) Ooh.
UZLYUK: (As Kevin McCallister) Yes. Yes.
ZAVALSKYY: (As Harry Lime) The little jerk is ours.
MANN: If you listen closely, you can still hear the American actors. It's common in Ukraine that foreign movies, like "Home Alone," aren't dubbed. Instead, Ukrainian actors do a kind of voiceover - one part translation, one part running narration. The actor who did Kevin's voice-over a quarter century ago is a woman, Olena Uzlyuk.
UZLYUK: (Through interpreter) In fact, I've done a lot of different projects, but "Home Alone" is something quite significant because - it's because of this film that people often address me, recognize me by my voice, especially my young colleagues.
MANN: Uzlyuk is now a famous film and theater actor in Ukraine. I've played a lot of roles in my career," she says, but this is the film I'm known for, even among my fellow actors. It is so loved for its sincerity, its warmth and its festivity. These days, it's easy to think of "Home Alone" as a kind of metaphor for what Ukraine is experiencing since Russia's invasion. Like Kevin, people here are scrambling to find ways to defend their homes. But the movie caught on long before Ukraine's current crisis.
ARSENII VENGRAK: Actually, I think it was released before I was born.
MANN: Back out on the street in Kyiv, Arsenii Vengrak, who's 27, says he, too, watches "Home Alone" almost every year. There was a time when Russian and Soviet holiday films were also popular in Ukraine. But even before the war, before Russia became the enemy, Vengrak says those movies lost their luster.
VENGRAK: They are old, those movies. And they are popular among elder people, like my mother's age, my father's age. But they are not really part of tradition anymore.
MANN: Another reason for "Home Alone's" popularity here is the film's score, which includes the song "Carol Of The Bells." It's based on a famous Ukrainian composition called "Shchedryk." Here's that scene in the Ukrainian version.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOME ALONE")
UZLYUK: (As Kevin McCallister) Merry Christmas. (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: One last footnote to "Home Alone's" cultural impact here - over the years, the film grew so popular in Ukraine, there was a really cheesy knockoff version made by a Ukrainian production company in 2013.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "1+1 DOMA")
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: (As Vovan, non-English language spoken).
MANN: The producer of that film and one of its stars was none other than Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then a famous actor, now the wartime president of Ukraine. Brian Mann, NPR News, Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "THE HOUSE (INSTRUMENTAL)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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