LETTERS TO ORSK

Filmmaker Andreas and his sister Vanessa find letters previously unknown to them from Natalia, their mother, whom they never really knew due to her early death at the age of only 30. The words she once wrote to her parents in the Russian industrial city of Orsk open a small window into space and time - a second chance to listen to their mother. In her early 20s, Natalia emigrated to Germany to work as a music teacher, hoping to find a better life. The reality, however, was different. Since her diploma was not recognized by the German authorities, she found only odd jobs and felt more and more alienated from her new home. Natalia died far from home and without her parents by her side. For Vanessa and Andreas, their mother becomes real again – somewhere between her letters, the steppe of Orsk and the grandparents they grew up with.

Andreas Boschmann © Andreas Boschmann photos © Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF / Clara Rosenthal 2023