Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic Problems of Film Translation: the Case of Translation of Russian Series “Чики” into English

Modern Russian cinema ignites the interest of the international public by its cultural diversity and unique national flavor. However, due to the fact that film or audiovisual translation is a relatively new area and thus one of the most under-researched, it has many flaws which impede the successful translation of films and series. Researchers highlight the interdisciplinary nature of AVT (audiovisual translation) and emphasize its close connection with pragmatics and sociolinguistics, whose potential they consider especially useful in finding solutions to AVT challenges. This paper aims at examining the process of film translation from the pragmatic and sociolinguistic perspective on the example of Russian series “Chicks” translation and at identifying the most potent strategies for the representative translation of that and similar series and films. The results of the research may be applied in AVT, localization, and cross-cultural studies, as well as in the translation of upcoming movies.