''Umka'' (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Умка) is a 1969

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

animated film. It is based on children's book of the same name by Yuri Yakovlev, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. Umka means "polar bear" in Chukchi language. The film is famous for its song "She-bear's Lullaby" (Russian: Колыбельная медведицы), written by

Yevgeny Krylatov Yevgeny Pavlovich Krylatov (russian: Евге́ний Па́влович Крыла́тов; 23 February 1934 – 8 May 2019) was a Soviet and Russian composer who wrote songs for over 120 Soviet and Russian movies and animated films. Biogr ...

and performed by

Aida Vedishcheva Aida Semyonovna Vedishcheva (russian: Аида Семёновна Ведищева, born Ida Solomonovna Weiss, russian: Ида Соломоновна Вайс, 10 June 1941) is a Soviet and American singer. In the 1960s, she contributed songs ...

Plot

One night, a female polar bear teaches her cub Umka how to build a den in the snow. When she puts him to sleep, he asks her to tell a tale about the fish. The tale is about a sad Fish-Sun who cannot escape from shark's teeth. After the tale, Umka asks if their Sun was eaten by a shark too, which his mother denies, since the Sun is not a fish and swims above them. She puts him to sleep, telling him that when he wakes up, the Sun will appear. She then sings him a lullaby to help him fall asleep. The next morning, Umka notices a small camp of human

reindeer herders Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

. When he asks about them, his mother explains that they are "bears who constantly walk on hind legs and can take off their

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...

". When Umka tries to walk on his hind legs, she tells him that they smell of smoke, sending him instead to catch a fish from an ice hole. When he tries to, he can't find any fish. His mother explains that this is because of his nose: while he is white, his nose is black, and that is blowing his cover. She advises him to cover it with his paw. Umka then wonders if the two-legged bears cover their noses too. One day, Umka encounters a small Chukchi boy who has just fallen off a reindeer while riding. When he sniffs him, he finds out that he smells like milk instead of smoke. When he asks him about his absence of a tail, the amused boy puts a snowball on Umka's snout for fun, before running off, throwing his cap into the air. This causes Umka to think that the boy has two heads. Another day, as Umka runs after some reindeer, he meets the same boy again. After asking him about his "second head" and other missing bear features, they decide to go to the sea. While Umka dives in, the boy stays on land, since the water is too cold for him. Suddenly, the mother calls for Umka, approaching them. To avoid trouble, Umka tells the boy to lie down in snow and cover his nose with his paw, although the boy crawls away just as Umka's mother arrives. When she senses the smell of smoke, Umka distracts her by pretending to spot a fish in a far ice hole, prompting mother to go and catch it. As Umka returns, he discovers that the boy has disappeared, leaving behind his cap. Umka takes the cap and runs to find his friend, only to discover people leaving along with the boy. Umka, sad that his friend is gone, asks his mother to relocate somewhere else; she complies. As they set off on an

ice floe An ice floe () is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across. Drift ice is a floating field of sea ice composed of several ice floes. They may cau ...

, the mother sings the second part of the lullaby. Later that night, someplace else, the boy gazes at the stars and sees

Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...

and

Ursa Minor Ursa Minor (Latin: 'Lesser Bear', contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, ...

, imagining the latter as his friend Umka waving at him. The film ends as the boy calls out for Umka.

Cast

Margarita Korabelnikova A margarita is a cocktail consisting of Tequila, triple sec, and lime juice often served with salt on the rim of the glass. The drink is served shaken with ice (on the rocks), blended with ice (frozen margarita), or without ice (straight up). ...

as Umka *

Klara Rumyanova Klara Mikhailovna Rumyanova (russian: link=no, Кла́ра Миха́йловна Румя́нова; 8 December 1929 – 18 September 2004) was a Soviet and Russian actress, voice actress and singer. She was active from 1951 to 1999. Her child ...

as the boy * Vera Popova as the mother bear

Crew

* Directors and art directors — Vladimir Pekar and Vladimir Popov * Screenwriter — Yuri Yakovlev * Composer —

* Camera operator — Nina Klimova * Sound operator —

Boris Filchikov Boris Pavlovich Filchikov (Russian: Бори́с Па́влович Фи́льчиков; 3 August 1918 – 15 January 2006) was a Soviet and Russian sound operator. He participated in the creation of about 500 Soviet and Russian cartoons and i ...

* Assistant — Lidiya Nikitina * Editor — Valentina Turubiner * Animators — Dmitry Anpilov, Lera Rybchevskaya, Olga Orlova, Viktor Shevkov * Script editor — Pyotr Frolov * Executive producer — Fyodor Ivanov

External links

Animator.ru

IMDb

Kino-Teatr.ru
(Russian)
Letterboxd
* (Russian) * {{YouTube, -0fP7Ac_rGo, «Umka» (Russian with English subtitles)

Plot

Cast

Crew

External links

See also