Ukrainian Animators Illustrate Humanity’s Struggle For Peace In New Music Video
Oppression has been an adversity suffered by many for generations. The music video for Flogging Molly’s new single, A Song Of Liberty, makes this apparent—it walks viewers back to the Easter Rising of Ireland in 1916, along with the two world wars. Yet, it is animated by Ukrainian artists, bringing audiences back to the present-day conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Olya and Vira Ishchuk, twin sisters who form the Ukrainian animation duo Mad Twins, were commissioned by the Irish-American Celtic punk band to portray the last hundred years of humanity’s battle with injustice and persecution. In their three months working on the project, there had been a dark cloud hanging above the animators, who recounted being under air alerts and witnessing their country being shelled.
The truth is this struggle for liberation has been on an endless loop, and the music video illustrates this by showing soldiers who are fortunate enough to have survived to have families, only for their sons to grow up and be soldiers themselves. In the latest expression of occupation, the animators’ own friends have been drafted and even killed by their oppressors.
Explains Flogging Molly frontman Dave King: “It’s a song of freedom, which I wrote as a recounting of a dark period in Irish history. But suddenly the injustice, and the fight against it, became current events. And so our Ukrainian friends, who’ve had their freedom taken away from them, created something with it that seeks to inspire hope in everyone.”
The sisters add that although the animation is centered around the Easter Rising story, it shares “the universal message of nations who fought for their independence and identity,” creating a future for their lineage to lead comfortable lives.
“These are idealists who will fight and die for their ideas,” say the animators. “We connected the story with the reality we are experiencing in Ukraine. Generations who went through two world wars paid with their blood for peace. Modern generations have grown up in a world where it is easy to take things for granted.”
The video concludes with calls to donate to three of the largest humanitarian charities providing aid for Ukraine’s service members—Come Back Alive, Razom for Ukraine, and the Prytula Foundation. On YouTube, the animation is also accompanied by a ‘Donate’ button directing funds to the New York-based Razom organization.
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[via Boing Boing and mxdwn Music, video and cover image via Flogging Molly]
