User:Вікторія Пушкіна/Me, "Pobyeda" and Berlin

"Me, "Pobyeda" and Berlin" is the literary debut of Ukrainian singer and showman Andriy Kuzmenko, leader of the band Skryabin, published by Folio in 2006. The collection includes two stories: "Me, "Pobyeda" and Berlin" and "The City Where There Is No Money", as well as lyrics of the famous songs by the band "Skryabin". The book is imbued with a vivid sense of humor, a cheerful mood, and can be classified as an adventure and suspense thriller. In August 2020, the filming of a movie based on this book by Kuzma started.

Me, "Pobyeda" and Berlin
The story revolves around an old and shabby Pobyeda car, in which a simple boy, Andriy, and his friend Bart, travel to the German capital. Andriy bought the car from a local artist for 200 US dollars, which he borrowed from his neighbor Oryska. He has terribly disappointed his mother with this purchase. The young man gets into some serious adventures, but his simple ingenuity allows him to get out of any problem. In Germany, the boy manages to exchange the antiques and returns home safe and sound with memories of wild adventures along the way.

This story is based on the adventures of Andriy Kuzmenko himself.

The City Where There Is No Money
At the center of the work is the bright, though somewhat utopian, idea of a cashless existence. However, the moral lies on a slightly different plane. Kuzma focuses on the relaying of human cruelty and hatred, which manifests itself in sophisticated ways of "paying" for goods. In the closed zone, where the protagonist Alice accidentally finds herself and from which it is almost impossible to get out, the author essentially shapes the society of the future. As for the style, Kuzma continues to stick to simplicity, although sometimes a certain post-modernism appears, dictated, so to speak, by the specifics of the work.

Songs lyrics
The book contains the lyrics of the following songs by the band "Skryabin" (in the order of their placement in the book):

Audiobook
In 2008, an audiobook lasting three hours and forty-five minutes was recorded. The text was read at a fast pace by Andriy Kuzmenko himself. However, there are noticeable mistakes in the narration: you can hear the author yawning or saying "sorry" with the wrong intonation and rereading the sentence again. However, you can find many favorable reviews of the audiobook on the Internet.

Film
In August 2020, with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, Star Media began filming Me, Victory and Berlin in Lviv. The film was scheduled to be released in spring 2022, but the release was postponed. The expected release date is March 21, 2024.

Ivan Blindar will play Kuzma in the movie.

Critics
Ihor-Bohdan Tereshschenko about the book: ...another dystopia in the post-Chernobyl "anti-glamor" style, with a disappointing moral: dance while you are young, but remember the old.

Links

 * Review of the book "Me, "Pobyeda" and Berlin" by Ihor Bondar-Tereshchenko