I Break For English.

Last night, my mate M and I decided that we wanted to do something normal; something that we would do in America. We needed a break from the constant flow of Russian, from our unpredictable daily schedule and from our cable-less lives (yes, we only get Russian and Ukrainian television stations). So M searched out the two cinemas in Kyiv that show original language films to see what was playing in English and we agreed that seeing Slumdog Millionaire would be the best choice for a night off.

We arrived at Kinopanorama early … because we thought we needed to be early to get a ticket. There are a lot of people in Kyiv who would be interested in watching an English film – in English, right?! Not so much. After the woman at the ticket counter finished taking her break, we purchased out tickets. Movie tickets here are purchased based the on seat choice and row 12 seats 14 and 15 cost us 40 rph (about $5) each.

I do not know how many of you have seen this movie … but the first half of the movie is all in Hindi; which would be cool … if we were in America where the subtitles are in English! Who would guess that the subtitles for movies in Ukraine are in Ukrainian? Seriously. It is a really good thing that I am well versed in the art of watching situations and determining what is going on because that is how I managed to keep up with the first half. The second half of the movie is a mix of English and Hindi – still with Ukrainian subtitles. I enjoyed the second half! Haha. So much for letting my brain go on auto-pilot for a few hours at an English language movie.

Either way, I had a good time hanging out with M and going to the movies. The next time we go to the cinema to see an English movie – we will look for one where the actors actually speak English and expect the subtitles to be in Ukrainian. Until then, it is off the Russian cinema for us.