Servant of the People

Servant of the People (Ukrainian: Слуга народу, romanized: Sluha Narodu, Russian: Слуга народа, romanized: Sluga Naroda, sometimes translated as Servant of the Nation) is a Ukrainian political satire comedy television series that premiered on 16 October 2015. It tells the story of Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko (Volodymyr Zelensky), a high-school history teacher in his thirties who unexpectedly wins election to the presidency of Ukraine, after a viral video filmed by one of his students shows him ranting in X-rated language against government corruption in Ukraine.[1][2][3]

For other uses, see Servant of the People (disambiguation).
Servant of the People
GenrePolitical satire
Comedy
Created byVolodymyr Zelensky
Starring
  • Volodymyr Zelensky
  • Stanislav Boklan
  • Olena Kravets
  • Jury Krapov
  • Mykhailo Fatalov
  • Oleksandr Pikalov
  • Eugene Koshovyi
  • Viktor Saraykin
  • Natalia Sumska
  • Kateryna Kisten
Theme music composerDmytro Shurov
Composer(s)
  • Andriy Kiryuschenko
Country of originUkraine
Original language(s)Russian
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes51
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s)
Production location(s)Kiev, Ukraine
Running time40—90 minutes
Production company(s)
  • Kvartal 95
Distributor
Release
Original network1+1
Picture format1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Original releaseOctober 16, 2015 (2015-10-16) –
March 28, 2019 (2019-03-28)
External links
Website

The series is produced by Kvartal 95, which was founded by Volodymyr Zelensky, the male lead.[4] It would become much more involved in Ukraine's actual politics; on 31 March 2018, a political party named after the television series was registered with the Ministry of Justice.[5] Furthermore, Zelensky, who played the protagonist of the series as the President of Ukraine, was actually elected President of Ukraine on 21 April 2019.[6]

Cast and characters
Volodymyr Zelensky
  • Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko (Volodymyr Zelensky): President of Ukraine, formerly a high school history teacher.
  • Yuriy Ivanovich Chuiko (Stanislav Boklan): Prime Minister of Ukraine
  • Petro Vassilyevich Holoborodko (Viktor Saraykin): Vasyl's father
  • Mariya Stefanovna Holoborodko (Nataliya Sumska): Vasyl's mother
  • Svetlana Petrovna Sakhno (Kateryna Kisten): Vasyl's sister, former 1st deputy of the tax service
  • Olha Yuriyivna Mishchenko (Olena Kravets): Vasyl's ex-wife, director of the Central Bank, later acting Prime Minister
  • Serhiy Viktorovich Mukhin (Yevhen Koshovy): Minister of Foreign Affairs, former actor
  • Mikhaylo Ivanovich Sanin (Yury Krapov): Minister of Fiscal Affairs
  • Ivan Andreyevich Skorik (Oleksandr Pikalov): Minister of Defence, former captain
  • Mikhail Ashotovich Tasunyan (Mykhailo Fatalov): Head of the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU)
  • Natasha Sakhno (Anna Koshmal): Vasyl's niece
  • Anna Mikhailovna (Halyna Bezruk): Vasyl's girlfriend

Release

Servant of the People aired on the 1+1 channel in Ukraine.[1] The studio also posted all episodes for free on YouTube.[2] The show is available for streaming and download on Netflix in some countries.[2]

Belarusian TV channel Belarus-1 started broadcasting the show in evening prime time on 11 November 2019.[7]

The Russian channel TNT aired only the pilot episode of the show's first series on 11 December 2019, claiming it did so as "a marketing move to raise awareness of the platform".[7] TNT cut a scene from the episode in which president-elect Holoborodko asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin wore a Hublot, a joke referring to a well-known, anti-Putin chant in Ukraine.[8]

Sequels

A feature film titled Servant of the People 2 was released in 2016. The second season used footage from the film to expand on its plot, and was released in 2017.[9] The third season was released in 2019, and a fourth is currently in production.

See also
  • In the Name of the People

References
  1. Jacobsen, Katherine (13 December 2016). "How a Fictional President Is Helping Ukrainians Rethink Their Absurd Politics". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  2. Kao, Anthony (6 June 2017). "Ukraine's 'Servant of the People' is a hidden gem of political comedy". Cinema Escapist. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  3. Kao, Anthony (22 August 2017). "Interview: Vladimir Zelenskiy on playing Ukraine's president in 'Servant of the People'". Cinema Escapist. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  4. Jacobsen, Katherine (13 December 2016). "How a Fictional President Is Helping Ukrainians Rethink Their Absurd Politics". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  5. (in Russian) The Ministry of Justice registered the party "Servant of the people", Ukrainian News Agency (26 April 2018)
  6. Wilson, Jennifer (2019-04-26). "Ukraine Elected a Sitcom Star President. His Show Tells Us What to Expect". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  7. (in Ukrainian) The "servant of the people" in Russia: after the cut joke about Putin the series was removed from the air, Ukrayinska Pravda (11 December 2019)
  8. "Russian TV abruptly pulls Zelenskiy's sitcom after cutting Putin joke". Deutsche Welle. 2019-12-12. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  9. "Ukrainian political comedy series 'Servant of the People' Season 2 will be released in October 2017". kvartal95.com.
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