Those Dazzling Dames from Ukraine
Exotic Ethnicity behind Hollywood’s Hottest
Posted: December 17, 2009
Beyond Oscar winners Walter Matthau (aka Вальтер Матущанскаяски - Walter Matuschanskayasky) and Jack Palance (aka Володимир Паланюк - Volodymyr Palanyuk), and despite a worldwide population roughly equivalent to the French, Ukrainians as an ethnic minority have gone largely unrepresented in Hollywood films. Prior to 1991, Ukraine had been partitioned and dominated by successively restrictive foreign governments for more than two centuries. Immigration to the West was limited.
But with the present Golden Globe nomination of Vera Farmiga for Best Supporting Actress in Up in the Air, ethnic Ukrainian leading ladies have clearly taken their place on the world stage with genuine star power. Besides Farmiga, their ranks include Mila Kunis, Olga Kurylenko, Milla Jovovich as well as multi-talented European pop diva Ani Lorak.
All five women speak both fluent English and Ukrainian.
Vera Farmiga (Вера Фарміґа)
The daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, Farmiga was born and raised inside an insular Ukrainian community in New Jersey. She did not learn English until age 6. Best known for her roles as the mother in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, as Matt Damon’s psychiatrist lover in The Departed, and as George Clooney’s last chance love-on-the-run in Up in the Air.
Chinese star Ziyi Zhang channels Julia Roberts
Ziyi Zhang in "Sophie's Revenge"
Bingbing Fan
Often regarded as the Chinese Julia Roberts, international sex symbol Ziyi Zhang (Golden Globe nominee: Memoirs of a Geisha, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Rush Hour 2, Golden Horse nominee: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) boldly ventures into an actual Julia Roberts-style story with Sophie’s Revenge in a genre not so very well-established on the Chinese circuit. Also featured as her romantic rival is charismatic newcomer Bingbing Fan. Both women speak English.
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World's Favorite Films 2010
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World Favorite Foreign Language Films 2010
Yip Man 2 (Chinese)
My Name Is Khan (Bollywood)
Nodame Cantabile 2 (Japanese)
Blood Brothers: Secret Reunion (Korean)
L'arnacoeur (French)
Doraemon: Mermaid Adventure (Japanese)
Little Big Soldier (Chinese)
La rafle (French)
Io, loro e Lara (Italian)
Liar Game (Japanese)
Our Rossiya (Russian)
Younger Brother (Japanese)
Housefull (Bollywood)
Harmony (Korean)
Go Lala Go (Chinese)
Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 2 (Chinese)
Chico Xavier (Portuguese)
Kandahar (Russian)
