Meet Niko, the queer puppet asking Ukrainian celebrities about sex
Created by London-based Ukrainian filmmaker and LGBTQ+ activist Yuriy Dvizhon, The First Time brings celebrities, comedy and sex education together in wartime Ukraine, voiced by Ukraine's Bart Simpson
Take Ukraine‘s best-known celebrities, put them inside the country’s largest library, then let a gender-nonconforming puppet ask them the questions most television presenters would be too embarrassed to raise. That’s the premise of The First Time, a new five-part sex-education series from London-based Ukrainian filmmaker and LGBTQ+ activist Yuriy Dvizhon.
The show took two and a half years to develop between London and Kyiv, made in collaboration with the Olena Pinchuk Foundation, which has spent more than 20 years building a culture of sexual education and open conversation around sexuality in Ukraine, with backing from British brand Aspinal of London.
Its star is Niko, a puppet who approaches sex and sexuality with curiosity rather than shame. Built by British puppet studio Talk to the Hand (Mongrels, Yonderland), Niko is voiced by Anna Lev, the official Ukrainian voice of Bart Simpson.
Alongside presenter and social-media personality TUMAZAR, Niko leads unguarded conversations with public figures about intimacy and relationships they rarely discuss on camera.
Filmed inside Kyiv’s Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, the series blends interviews, comedy, puppetry and evidence-based sex education, with the library itself providing facts and expert context.
Guests include MÉLOVIN, one of Ukraine’s most prominent openly LGBTQ+ pop artists, who represented the country at Eurovision in 2018. In his episode, he talks about coming out, bullying, his relationship with his father and the pressures faced by LGBTQ+ public figures in Ukraine.
Production continued through Russia’s invasion, with Dvizhon directing much of it from London while the team in Kyiv worked through blackouts and repeated missile and drone attacks.
The First Time continues more than a decade of filmmaking and activism from Dvizhon, a co-founder of UkrainePride whose previous work includes the documentary Marriage (in)Equality in Ukraine. He is now directing My Turquoise, following a middle-aged lesbian couple from Ukraine and Kazakhstan trying to build a life together across borders.
The First Time is available to watch on Ukrainian streaming platform MEGOGO now.