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Slava Vakarchuk, Svitlana Tarabarova and Vasyl Kryachok were all strictly working musicians before Russia invaded Ukraine. Vakarchuk leads the chamber-influenced band Okean Elzy, singing and playing piano. Tarabarova writes and performs uptempo pop. Kryachok conducted the Mariupol Chamber Philharmonic. But since Feb. 24, 2022, the musicians have been pulling double duty defending their home country by using their talents to help front-line soldiers.
Hillsboro-based nonprofit DAWN Inc. will host a screening of the documentary Soldiers of Song—which follows Vakarchuk, Tarabarova and Kryachok among those navigating their new normals—at the Chapel Theatre in Milwaukie on Saturday, July 26. Proceeds from the screening—which are fully tax deductible for moviegoers—will support DAWN’s mission to deliver medical supplies and in-person mental health services to Ukraine (the nonprofit’s acronym stands for Defend, Aid, Widen and Nurture).
Soldiers of Song, which screened at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, shows Okean Elzy—which has played together for over 30 years and performed the first modern music aired on MTV Russia back in the ’90s—playing in a bombed out building, sandwiching Vakarchuk’s introduction between archival footage of the band playing a packed stadium. Presented in both Ukrainian and English, Soldiers of Song recalls the invasion’s early days retold through professional and amateur news footage.
Tarabarova speaks to the surrealism of war unfolding in the town where she raises her three children, describing the discarded snow-covered tanks as if they were leftover movie props. Vakarchuk used his platform to share his experiences with the outside world. The Mariupol Chamber Philharmonic’s bomb shelter protected 1,200 people amid some of the war’s most brutal early attacks, including one on the Mariupol Drama Theater which killed hundreds of civilians.
Some war documentaries obviously focus on military action, but Soldiers of Song is somehow more tender in its recollection of battlefield horrors. Tarabarova discusses how she keeps her children safe while trying to help them understand what’s happening, while 22-year-old singer-turned-paramedic Kateryna “Ptashka” Polishchuk remembers the children she cared for in the Donbas region. Music on the battlefield has been strategic since before the drums and fifes of America’s Revolutionary War. But making time to make music under fire not only boosts the morale of those who hear it, but the musicians help keep Ukrainian culture alive.
SEE IT: Soldiers of Song at Chapel Theatre, 4107 SE Harrison St., Milwaukie, 971-350-9675, chapeltheatremilwaukie.com. 6 pm Saturday, July 26. $18–$22.
