Vadim Jendreyko:
Svetlana Geier is considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German. For the Zürich-based publishing house Ammann, she recently completed her life’s work – the retranslation of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels – named the five elephants. Geier’s work is characterized by a great and highly sensual understanding of language and an uncompromising esteem for the writers she translates. Her standard is that the translation’s core must match the spirit of the novel and the character of the author. At the same time, she knows that every translation is ultimately imperfect and remains a prisoner of its time.
Svetlana Geier’s life was overshadowed by Europe’s checkered past. Born in the Ukraine in 1923, she witnessed the imprisonment of her father during Stalin’s Great Purge when she was 15. Badly beaten and abused, her father was released 18 months later and died shortly thereafter. When she was 18, she lost her best friend when the SS executed 30,000 Jews in Kiev. During the occupation of the Ukraine, she worked as an interpreter and was detained with her mother in an eastern labor camp in Dortmund in 1943. She stayed in Germany after the war, went to university, started a family, and began translating Russian literature into German.
With Vadim Jendreyko, the 85-year-old woman travels, for the first time, from her adopted homeland Germany back to the places of her youth in the Ukraine.
The movie interweaves Svetlana Geier’s life story with her literary work and traces the secrets of this tirelessly active woman. It tells the story of great sorrow, quiet helpers, and unexpected opportunities – and of a love for language which outshines everything else.
Prizes at the Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon 2009:
- Prix Spécial SRG SSR idée suisse from the international jury
- Prix SSA/Suissimage for the festival’s best Swiss film
- Laudatory mention from the interreligious jury
The Woman with the 5 Elephants
CH/D, 93 minutes, color, German/Russian
Director and screenplay: Vadim Jendreyko
Camera: Niels Bolbrinker, Stéphane Kuthy
Sound: Patrick Becker
Editing: Gisela Castronari-Jaensch
Music: Daniel Almada, Martin Iannaccone
Swiss production: Mira Film GmbH / Hercli Bundi and Vadim Jendreyko
German production: Filmtank GmbH / Thomas Tielsch
Coproduction: ZDF/3sat, editorial staff: Inge Classen; Swiss Television, editorial staff: Urs Augstburger and Marion Bornschier
Supported by: MFG Baden Württemberg, Federal Cultural Office, Technical Committee for Audio vision and Multimedia in the Basel-City and Basel-Land Cantons, Volkart Stiftung, S. Fischer Stiftung, Edith Maryon Stiftung, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, UBS Kulturstiftung, Migros Kulturprozent, Focal Stagepool.
Trailer
