Олег Онопрієнко Історії 14 April 2026, 09:00

"Our corporate principles: respect, development and... swearing." Postmodern Studio COO Maryna Markovych on the specifics of dubbing for Netflix and HBO Max

Viewers of TV series and movies on Netflix and HBO Max have noticed that over the past year, a lot of swear words have appeared in the Ukrainian dubbing, and now Thomas Shelby in the Ukrainian localization of "The Pointy Hats" sends everyone not to their mother's house, but to f*ck. At the same time, in cinemas, the same "Superman" continues to speak with emphasised politeness.

We spoke with Maryna Markovych, the operations director of the Postmodern studio, about why you can afford more on streaming than in the box office, how obscene language helps fight piracy, and why "sterile" language prevents Ukrainians from completely abandoning Russian content.

— In the film “Superman” from 2025, which was dubbed by Postmodern for the Ukrainian distribution, I noticed an interesting thing: in the original, Supergirl says a rather rude phrase to the dog: “Thanks for watching him bitch,” while in the Ukrainian distribution it was translated as “Thank you for not blowing the dog.” At the same time, in projects for Netflix, you allow yourself much more. Why is there such a difference in approaches to obscene language?

It is important to understand the difference between cinema, television and streaming. In cinema distribution, strict rating standards are in place, which are established by the legislation of Ukraine. For large studios and distribution companies, it is important to get the widest possible coverage, i.e. a rating (0+ or 12+), so as not to lose slots in the schedule.

In a war situation, when the distribution is already suffering from air raids and curfews, artificially narrowing the audience is a blow to the entire chain: from the distributor to the cinema owner. Therefore, we choose an adaptation that preserves the content and mood, but does not take the film beyond the boundaries of "family viewing". Streaming services work on a subscription model, where there is a system of parental controls and PIN codes, which gives us much more creative freedom and the opportunity to be authentic to the 18+ original.

— What about television and streaming? Who regulates them?

On linear television, everything is clear: 18+ content is allowed only from 22:00 to 06:00, and this is controlled by the National Council. But on streaming, the situation is different - the viewer chooses the viewing time himself. There is a system of child accounts and parental control, so the responsibility for what the child hears falls on the parents. This frees our hands and allows us to do localization that matches the "taste" of the original as much as possible.

To me, this is reminiscent of the difference between private and public companies: a lot is left to the platform's own discretion. Of course, the content must be within the acceptable limits, but since it is a closed ecosystem, then it is the viewer's responsibility. At the same time, the platforms themselves care very much about their reputation - none of them will risk unjustified rudeness if the artistic intention does not require it.

— When exactly did this shift towards a livelier and harsher language occur, and whose initiative was it — yours or those who commissioned it?

In fact, Western customers always asked us to keep the atmosphere of the original. But we had been “riding on old rails” for a long time: we were used to sterile, “bookish” language. We often received feedback from viewers, and even ourselves, comparing the dubbing with the original, understood that it sounded “tasteless.”

The turning point came when we started discussing it internally — with directors, translators, editors. And when we asked the clients, it turned out that they were all “in favor.” We reread the guides in detail, took a deep breath, and started trying.

Of course, it wasn’t without some “grinding.” There was a case when we recorded a project and the whole team was delighted, but at the final meeting we realized it was “too much.” Our internal quality control (QC) didn’t miss the result, and we rewrote half of the film. It was then that we formed our “code of ethics”: we don’t swear for the sake of the process, but look for apt dynamic responses. We even jokingly defined our corporate principles: respect, equality, development, and… swearing.

— So the main incentive was audience demand?

Viewer demand is the basis, but there is another important factor: the fight against piracy.

I am very saddened by the level of piracy in Ukraine. But I must admit: pirates often become a kind of “Robin Hood” for the audience. On their resources you can find “all content in Ukrainian” — this is the number one “Robin Hood” narrative. The second is “here the characters talk like in real life.” The audience likes it.

And we understand that we don’t want to offer only refined language and lose to pirates in this. We are not ready to stoop to their level of vulgarity, but we must respond to the viewer’s request for emotional truth. Piracy is a huge problem not only for our industry, but also for the state as a whole. But for the viewer to choose a legal platform, he must receive no less driving localization there. Our “courage” in dubbing is also part of the fight for the legal market.

— We have started hearing a lot of foul language on live broadcasts, and from those in power, and the streets are also covered with posters with directions for a Russian warship. Don't you think this is a tribute to the times, given the war?

This is fully consistent with the realities in which we exist. It's hard, when a "shahed" is flying at you, to say: "Oh my, what's that flying there." We have become more open and much more sensitive to any falsehood, because we all live on the verge of very strong emotions now. This is the first thing.

Secondly, we observe how many people have switched, or are trying to switch, to the Ukrainian language (I am among those who finally did it in 2022). And here it is important to note - you truly accept the language only when you can express all your feelings (both positive and negative) with it. When you can argue, quarrel, or declare your love and desire with it. Where can we get this living experience if only refined, “museum” language sounds from the screens? It does not help to express true feelings. We now have a very acute perception, and sometimes restrained literary words are simply not enough.

And third: our language is cool and "nightingale", but at the same time it is a language of struggle. It must be flexible, defiant and emotional. And the audience's demand for this today is really great.

— Does everyone in the dubbing industry agree with this approach to localization? What exactly is the disagreement of those who don't want to use harsher language?

There is no unanimity even among our teams: some are afraid of experiments, some fundamentally disagree — and this is a normal process. But we break the most spears with external QC teams of customers. They often appeal to rigid norms and dictionaries of the last century.

And here the argument begins. When in the original, a gangster in a state of affect swears concisely and aptly, and we make him say “Oh, you jerk!” — it destroys the dynamics of the scene. The viewer simply stops believing the character. And our main goal is for the viewer to believe. There should be a living person on the screen, not a philologist with a dictionary from 1928.

Recently, after a lecture by the Azov Hornet Service on the history of language, the audience and I came to an apt conclusion: a structured literary language is wonderful. But let's discuss academic standards when 90% of the population communicates in Ukrainian. Now it is important for us not to argue about whose dialect is better, but to overcome the dominance of the Russian language in society. And for this, Ukrainian must become a language of living emotions, not a museum exhibit.

— How much has your studio grown in recent years?

At the very beginning, we had 10 people, now the team has about 50 specialists. But the main thing is not just the number of people, but the organization of their work and processes.

In 2022, after the full-scale invasion began, we opened a studio in Lviv for the Localization department. At the same time, the Original Sound department continued work on the Dovbush project. Currently, only the Kyiv studios are operating, but it was an interesting and useful experience.

The arrival of international streaming brought such volumes that radically scaled both us and the entire market. A lot of “new blood” came to the industry: translators, actors, sound engineers. At Postmodern, we completely reformatted production and automated some of the processes: if in 2021 we barely managed to produce 1,000 minutes per month, today our capacities allow us to produce 4,000 minutes of dubbing and up to 8,000 minutes of voiceover. This is the result of the correct organization of work, which allows us to scale without losing quality.

— Postmodern Studio also did the Ukrainian dubbing of the Ukrainian video game Shatterline. Tell us how localizing a game differs from working on a film or TV series?

Working on a game is as different from a movie as dubbing a shooter from a quest — these are completely different technical approaches. Shatterline was an interesting experience for us. Unfortunately, after that we didn’t dub games anymore, although the demand from Ukrainian gamers for audio localization is huge. I’m constantly being asked to dub this or that title.

However, it is important to understand: such requests should be directed not to studios, but directly to developers and publishers. They are the ones who make decisions and allocate the budget. As a studio, we are technically ready for this and are always open to dialogue. In addition, the industry is developing rapidly: the approach to game localization a few years ago and now is a completely different process and level of understanding of the product.

— How exactly is it different?

The changes were mainly in management and organization, not in the technologies themselves. We moved away from traditional linear production: we broke the work into smaller stages and parallelized tasks. Now different specialists can work on the project simultaneously, instead of waiting for each other. Thanks to new approaches to scheduling the time of the actors and the editing team, we managed to significantly speed up the processes.

— Will artificial intelligence take the jobs of dubbing actors?

As I usually joke: I've been working as a manager and leader for so many years, and I'm really waiting for AI to take at least some of my work away from me. But it doesn't take it all away, and it won't.

Seriously, we don’t plan to replace living people with AI. Ethical work requires fair agreements and protection of the voice as private intellectual property. The biggest challenge today is the “shadow” use of technology, when actors’ voices are simply stolen without any rights or payment. We all need to learn to tame AI ethically so that it becomes a tool for helping, not a tool for devaluing human work.

— Is there a favorite movie or TV series that you would really like to dub into Ukrainian or re-dubbed in a new way?

As a mother, I dream of seeing more cartoon series and educational documentaries for children dubbed into Ukrainian — there is a dire shortage of them right now. Personally, I would also like to see more quality culinary content.

As for adult films, the team always jokes that I’ll “blow their brains out” with my increased attention to my favorite projects. But I’d really like to work on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the Fallout series. It would also be incredibly exciting to do a new (official!) dub for Breaking Bad.

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