Tracks East

Since Russia invaded its neighbour, Ukrainian culture has been enjoying a revival. Folklore in particular is a means of resisting the invader by strengthening the country's cultural identity. Tracks East looks at the craze for traditional song and dance as well as the refusal of some artists to express their patriotism through music.

In Russia, the regime has a musical army of pop artists who perform patriotic songs that glorify the Russian people. Some artists criticise the regime and are duly side-lined. What happens when pop music meets propaganda?

With the war in Ukraine, the spectre of a new food crisis is haunting Africa. Tracks East witnesses an artistic performance that revives the trauma of the great famine that decimated Ukraine in the 1930s. Ukrainian farmers working the land today are coming under Russian machine-gun fire. Finally, we head for Nairobi, where the distant war is weighing heavily on local people’s wallets.

In September 2022 the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody set off nationwide protests in Iran. One year on from this civil unrest, Tracks East meets the ultra-connected younger generation who demonstrate their opposition to the government through art and music.

Eighteen months after Russia invaded Ukraine, how is Russian civil society coping with Putin’s dictatorial drift? Tracks East investigates with journalist and debunker of fake news, Masha Borzunova.

Tracks East finds out how militarisation, migration, and an increasing polarisation within society are affecting the mood in Poland as elections approach.

At the front, the war continues, but for Ukrainians, the process of remembering has already begun. How can the country honour its many dead while conflict endures? In this episode, Tracks East looks at the way in which men and women evoke the past and perpetuate its memory.

When war disrupts daily life, social issues often take a back seat. Tracks East meets the men and women who refuse to let armed conflict get in their way. Anna, a doctor in Kyiv, wants sexual liberation along with sexual health and Alina and Stanislava are campaigning for equal marriage.

The children of the Russian elite live out their dreams while their non-elite compatriots are sent to the front in Ukraine, invoking a well-connected parent allows them to escape mobilisation. Exiled Russian journalist Masha Borzunova sheds light on these parallel worlds.

Has Russia's invasion of Ukraine plunged the world back into the Cold War? And what if Russia's attack on its neighbour was actually aimed at the United States? Jean-Michel Scherbak travels to New York for Tracks East to meet Ukrainian and Russian communities there.

In Israel everything changed overnight on 7 October. In this episode, Tracks East looks at life in the Jewish state after the Hamas attack.

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel, the Ha'achim restaurant in Tel Aviv has become a community kitchen with volunteers, who prepare food parcels there, still reeling from the shock of recent events. In Ukraine, chef Ievgen Klopotenko has been proudly showcasing his country's gastronomy as an expression of culture and identity.

Tracks East looks at the human rights situation in several parts of the world: Freedom of expression in Russia, Women’s rights in Iran, the inhabitants of Gaza under bombardment, and the forced exile of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.