VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: “Servant of the People"

Servant of the people - cover image from IMDB (2015)

“History repeats itself, first as farce, second as a tragedy.” *

2014: a history teacher gives a rant about Ukraine's corrupt government. A student catches it on his cell phone, the video goes viral.  He's put up as a candidate for president and wins.  Surprised, his only promise is to try to make Ukrainians proud of him.

He meets his entourage – a “suntan architect”, an “esteem raiser”, a body double suggested as useful for when “he has drinks with Lukashenko”, the staff of a government department devoted to downsizing government. “Servant of the People” got a five-star review: “Zany - like the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup”.

2019: Volodymyr Zelensky runs for president and wins. Surprised, his only promise is to try to make the Ukrainian people proud of him. It's not easy. Trump tries to shake him down to find dirt on Joe Biden.  And now Putin's war.  We see it every day - it is a gut-wrenching tragedy. Watch the series if you can find it. The Financial Times reported that it will make you laugh and break your heart.

“Servant of the People” is free in Great Britain and Ireland. Read that a small Swedish agency in Stockholm has copyrights.

* “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marx, 1818-1883

Source: Financial Times, internet


Note: Again, I don't know much of anything valuable to add in these odd and sad times, other than repeating the obvious. Oh, in Finland, "Servant of The People" is freely available from YLE, the Finnish National Broadcasting Company, at their AREENA streaming service. Yet another case of well-spent tax euros, I say.

So far I've seen the first two episodes. It's pretty good, even without giving it the obviously deserved sympathy points.

CU

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Eki