The intrusion of Hollywood science-fiction fantasy into the grim daily realities of war in Ukraine is a consequence of Mark Hamill's decision to lend his famous voice to 'Air Alert' — a downloadable app linked to Ukraine's air defense system.
Mark Hamill salutes as he arrives at the world premiere of"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in Los Angeles on Dec. 16, 2019.
“A fairy tale about good versus evil is resonant with what’s going on in Ukraine,” Hamill said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The Ukrainian people rallying to the cause and responding so heroically ... It’s impossible not to be inspired by how they’ve weathered this storm.” “Here I sit in the comfort of my own home when in Ukraine there are power outages and food shortages and people are really suffering,” he said. “It motivates me to do as much as I can.”
Bohdan Zvonyk, a 24-year-old app user who lives in the repeatedly struck western city of Lviv, says he chose Hamill’s voiceover rather than the Ukrainian setting because he is trying to improve his English. He’s a “Star Wars” fan, too.After one alert, Zvonyk was riding a trolley bus when Hamill’s voice rang out from his phone. He said the man in front “turned to me and said, smiling: ‘Oh, those damn Sith,’” to describe Russian forces. The Sith are the malevolent enemies of the do-gooding Jedi.
Sometimes it can be wise to shut Hamill off. Yeremina forgot to do that on a trip outside Ukraine — to Berlin — and paid for the error when the alarm started shrieking at 6 a.m. and, again, when she rode the subway in the German capital. She wasn’t alone. Another person in the subway car also had the app and it erupted, too. The two of them first cursed, but then “it made both me and that person smile,” Yeremina recalled.
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