The crime drama Russia and Ukraine want to ban

Ukrainians andTV Russians agree on very little lately, but a Russian series has created an unlikely connection. In both countries, audiences are lapping it up and bureaucrats want to ban it. “Slovo Patsana”or “A Fella’s Word”, is set in the criminal underworld of -era Tatarstan. By the late 1980s, the Russian republic’s street gangs were infamous. Young kids “divided up the tarmac” of Kazan, the regional capital, under the eyes of older criminals. Those who joined the gangs were called , and had protection of sorts. Those who did not, the , were targets of often extreme violence.Zhora Kryzhovnikov’s eight-part series is an unsentimental take on late Soviet decay, cynicism and sadism. Its high production values and unflinching drama made it a hit almost as soon as it aired in November. In Russia its title was the single most-searched term on search engines; in Ukraine it was not far behind. The title music, which goes unidentified in the credits because the musicians are anti-war, tops charts in both countries.