Thanks to her, every film in which Rimma Zyubina appears is filled with vitality, energy and each time a different unexpected color. Even if she plays only an episode, be sure that it will give the viewer some of the brightest emotions from the whole picture. Of course, the talent of the actress was fully revealed on the theater stage, and Ukrainian cinema, due to its instability, offered the actress many fewer roles than she could perform. We selected from Rimma Zyubina’s filmography exactly those tapes that show her versatility.
The vast majority of these tapes raise acute problems of our society: war, mass emigration of workers, ageism, smuggling, etc. The actress never stays away from the problems of our society and takes on every challenge Ukraine faces. After all, patriotism is always one of the biggest forces driving Rimma Zyubina.
Mariupol Never Lost Hope (2022)
One of the most heartfelt documentaries about the people who held out in Mariupol during the first month of the full-scale invasion. The picture is based on diaries written by Mariupol journalist Nadiya Sukhorukova. “It is important for me that every crime of the Rashists be recorded, and they answer for everything,” she wrote in this diary. The film does not contain any scary footage of war, suffering and destruction. Instead, there is the direct speech of those who have been through it all. Rimma Zyubina herself does not appear in this picture, but she voiced one of the heroines of the film. During her long career, the actress often gave her voice to screen characters. And among many such tapes, we chose this tragic documentary because of its relevance and truthfulness.
Lucy the intern (2021)
The light and inspiring series tells about the restless (like Zyubina herself) heroine Lyudmila Zhuk. After 30 years of married life, her husband leaves her, who goes to a young mistress. However, the family drama does not break Lyudmila, but pushes her to return to the internship she left many years ago, in order to finally realize her old dream and become a doctor. So she finds herself among young aspiring specialists, where Lyudmila has to confirm every day that age is not an obstacle.
The Guard (2015)
One of the first films that showed how the Euromaidan events turned into the war in Donbas. The plot revolves between a patriot protester and an officer of the internal forces, who were on different sides of the barricades during the Revolution of Dignity. However, with the beginning of the war, they ended up together in the National Guard. Together, the former opponents will have to undergo military training and defend the country side by side. Zyubina played one of the most emotional roles in this film – she played the mother of a volunteer. During the last decade, tens of thousands of those who are waiting for their children from the front recognize themselves in this image of Rimma.
A Taste of Freedom (2023)
An inspiring and bright film about a young, talented cook, Varya, who dreams of cooking exquisite dishes in an elite restaurant. However, it is very difficult for her to find a job and she is turned down by a number of restaurants one by one. One day, she accidentally finds a book of recipes by the legend of Ukrainian cuisine, Olga Franko. This discovery changes her life forever.
Trumpeter (2014)
The musical comedy tells about the young trumpeter Mykola Shevchenko. He declares himself not only as a capable performer, but also as the author of his own musical compositions. The famous musician Eugene Gaisin, who came to the city on tour, draws attention to him. At the same time, the rivalry between two children’s music groups is intensifying. Children have everything here, like adults – intrigue, love, rivalry, envy.
The Door Ajar (2022)
An extremely relevant social drama about an honest guy who takes care of his loved ones every day. Instead, the family of the protagonist is burdened with laziness and despair. One day, the main character decides to go to the front, hoping that this act of his will make those around him reconsider his way of life. Having voiced his plans, the boy is exposed to passionate opposition.
Border (2017)
The plot of this criminal drama unfolds in 2007, when Slovakia was about to join the Schengen zone. Because of this, work on strengthening the Ukrainian-Slovak border continues. The main character, Adam Krayniak, leads a criminal gang that deals in smuggling. Uniton consignments of contraband during transportation across the border, is lost. And this leads to a series of dangerous events. They force the protagonist to reconsider what limits he is willing to cross in order to make things right.
I Work in a Graveyard (2021)
The black comedy shows the unhappy life of Sasha, who is busy installing tombstones in the cemetery. The main character is full of irony and cynicism even when accepting orders for tombstones from loved ones and relatives suffering from grief. Suddenly, his teenage daughter returns to Sashka’s life. At the same time, local criminality is trying to take away Sashko’s fortune in business. As he tries to untangle all these life complications, it becomes clear that they originate in the distant past.
Dove’s Nest (2016)
Rimma Zyubina’s most powerful movie role, in which she subtly conveyed the innermost feelings of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian emigrants. The picture hit a social nerve, showing that behind the beautiful and seductive facade of work in Europe lie complex and insidious trials.
The plot of the picture begins with the fact that the emigrant Daryna leaves her unemployed husband and teenage daughter in a Ukrainian village and goes to Italy to earn money. There she takes care of order in the house of a wealthy lady. The son of this woman has his eye on her. Later, she returns home and sees how dramatically the life of her husband and daughter has changed during her absence. Daryna herself has also changed. After all, after Italy, she returned pregnant.
Dotsya (2020)
Yes, before that it was only about movies, but this, the final point of the selection, is an audiobook. Giving her voice to this novel, Zyubina was able to make the already beautiful prose of the writer Tamara Gorikha Zernya even more expressive.
This book is about love. It does not have a single word for “lyu…”, but it is about love. About magic, not fake, reproduced from TV screens, but real, from the family and the root, when you dive headfirst into the Ancient Ocean and emerge from there with a fish in your teeth. And also about courage. About the unconditional courage to find one’s own, to recognize it, to lean on with one’s hands and feet and not give it to anyone. Your home, your homeland, your heart, your right to walk with your head held high.
The events of the novel take place in the spring and summer of the fourteenth year in Donetsk. Donbas is a zeroing point, a place of strength, where the most important questions were raised. And only there are the necessary answers hidden. But where everything began, everything will end there, when history will complete another circle, and the eternal serpent Ouroboros will bite its tail again. It was here that the heroine lost her family, home, job, illusions – and it was here that she gathered the fragments of life again, found a new meaning and a new support.
