Film Review: Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World

STUDIO: Gravitas Ventures | DIRECTOR: Michael Fiore
RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2024 | PRICE: Blu-ray $25.99
BLU-RAY BONUSES: director’s commentary, trailer
SPECS: NR | 106 min. | Genre | 16:9 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo | English and Ukrainian subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie

Best known for its borscht, pierogies and stuffed cabbage, New York City’s Ukrainian restaurant Veselka of the East Village (and most recently, with its newest outpost, of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood) has taken on the additional role of freedom fighter since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.

The lively documentary Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World (“veselka” is Ukrainian for “rainbow”) by writer/director Michael Fiore begins by t presenting the history of the well-known restaurant, which was founded in 1954 by a married pair of Ukrainian refugees. As we learn, Veselka has remained a family business since then and is now overseen by the founders’ grandson, Jason Birchard, who inherited it from his father Tom, who recently retired after running the show for some 54 years.

As we soon learn, Veselka provides more than just familiar food to Ukrainian immigrants and those of similar descent, but also serves as an integral part of the NYC’s lower east side Ukrainian community (for decades) and frequently provides jobs for its largely Ukrainian staff of cooks, waiters and maintenance workers.

Restauranteur Jason Birchard (ctr.) and his father (r.) cut through the borscht with New York City mayor Eric Adams in Veselka.

Director Fiore smartly and sensitively captures the interactions between the Birchard family and Veselka employees as every day brings news of the war.As the many months of the Russian-Ukraine war affects the staff (following the pandemic and lockdown), taking both a mental and emotional toll, the Birchards and their employees raise nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in aid for the war efforts, while also sponsoring regular drives for clothing and household items to provide for the citizens of Ukraine. Most of the staff has family in Ukraine suffering from the war’s devastation, and those effects are deeply felt by all, from the Birchards themselves to the food preppers who make the pierogies to those who cook who mans the friers.  (Oh, and in case the impression wasn’t given, Veselka’s food looks really, really GOOD. And I can tell you from experience, that IT IS!)

Once the state of affairs in Ukraine the eatery’s history has been established, the film moves forward episodically, focusing on events that have gone down since the escalation of the war. Among them are a sequence where NYC mayor Eric Adams and his staff drop by Veselka for a meal and discussion about the situation. The media hover all about during Adams’ visit, where he tells Jason Birchard that he will add his voice and powers to the struggle (which includes allowing outdoor dining during the late stages of the pandemic) even as he mugs for the media’s surrounding cameras. (Later on, the Birchards have a similar meet-and-eat with Governor Kathy Hochul.) Another bit finds a visiting Ukrainian baseball team dining in the restaurant prior to a game again the New York Police Department.

In the most emotional segment, one of Veselka’s managers, a young man named Vitalii, engineers bringing his mother to New York during the war, the two having not seen each other in years. In NYC, she is hired by Jason Birchard as a food prepper, which allows her the opportunity to meet fellow Ukrainians in her age group and feel more comfortable during what become an extended stay in the U.S.

It’s sequences like this one that encompass the surprisingly wide range of emotions that come with this tale of war and family and hope and pierogies.

Like Vitalii’s mother says upon driving into Manhattan after her arrival: “I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful.”