A Bit of a Stranger

The filmmaker Svitlana was born in Mariupol during Soviet times. In her film, she looks at the experiences of four generations of women, including her own, and examines how Moscow’s long-standing imperial policies have robbed them of their national identity. Each new generation in Svitlana’s family is more Russified than the last. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shatters the Russian part of all their identities and forces them to find another. Svitlana’s daughter flees to London with her child and falls into an existential crisis there. Despite the loss of her home in Mariupol, Svitlana’s mother calmly parts way with her Soviet-Russian past. Svitlana herself examines the colonised part of her consciousness and tries to find answers to the question of what impact Soviet totalitarianism and Russification have had on the relationships within her family.

Source: 74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)