When Dan and I heard about this winning performance by Kseniya Simonova on Ukraine’s Got Talent, we had to see it.  Our little girl is from the Ukraine, and to think that an artist could use sand to tell the story of the German’s WWII invasion into the Ukraine (called the Great Patriotic War in the Ukraine) in eight and a half minutes (let alone any story in that amount of time) was mind-boggling.  Sand, mind you.  And the audience was in tears.

[One out of every four died in the war-that’s eight to eleven million people in a population of 42 million.]

I’ll let the video speak for itself, but truly, it’s astoundingly wonderful and tragic.

One addition (I know, I promised not to, but I can’t resist): the young woman transformed into an old woman in the middle is significant, in that if you go to the Ukraine today, you’ll be amazed to see high numbers of old women–heads wrapped in scarves–selling fruit and flowers on street corners.  They’re WWII widows who have no other way of supporting themselves.  They’re highly respected, and people will go out of their way to buy their wares.  It’s a sorrowful sight.

Kseniya Simonova, the artist, entered the competition to help a child with medical bills.  She took the prize, bought a modest house, and assisted the child.  She’s amazed at all the publicity she’s received for doing this.

We are saving this video for Liliana to view some day.

I thought I’d share.  How could I not?

[Post image: Lenin Statue in Yalta Port]