‘Veselka’ documentary is an NYC rallying cry for Ukraine

nypost.com:

varenyky and borscht.But, in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the line on Ninth Street that curved onto Second Avenue felt different.

It was bigger and stayed later. Nobody cared that it was freezing outside.On Feb. 27, 2022, at 7 p.m., three days after the war began, I watched as about 100 diners stood, waiting to get into the eatery, as TV news crews interviewed patrons.It was a remarkable scene.

People donated money, clothes and diapers. The blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag were everywhere. And the street was alive with the intense solidarity that courses powerfully through New York City’s veins.“People have been lining up since early in the morning — 9, 9:30 a.m. — for indoor and outdoor dining,” Veselka owner Jason Birchard says in the new documentary “Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World,” showing at Village East through March 7.“It’s just been a constant flow of people coming to sympathize.”While “Veselka” is first and foremost a deeply affecting story of a family-run restaurant, at the film’s best it also serves as a vital reminder — and a wake-up call for some — of what’s at stake in Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia and of New York’s strong connection to a valiant fight for survival 4,700 miles away.For 70 years, Veselka (Ukrainian for “rainbow”) has served hearty Eastern European fare to loyal customers in the Manhattan neighborhood also known as Little Ukraine that some 25,000 Ukrainian-Americans still call home.Opened in 1954 by Wolodymyr Darmochwal as a corner store and newsstand, it eventually expanded into full-blown food service.In the mid-’70s, when NYC was alight with crime and budget cutbacks, the place was almost doomed by business-killing construction right.