Swetlana Geier is considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German. Recently she completed her lifework – the translation of the five great novels of Dostoyevski – called the five elephants. She was born in the Ukraine, which she left during the war in 1943. She never went back. Since then she lives in Germany. Today she has been lecturing at various universities for forty years. She is the grandmother and great-grandmother to many children and the head of an extensive family. The eighty-five-year old woman is making her first trip since the war back to the places of her childhood. The film interwaves the story of Swetlana Geier's life with her literary work and traces the secret of this inexhaustible mediator of language. It tells of great suffering, silent helpers and unhoped-for chances. And a love of language that outshines all else.
Vadim Jendreyko was born in 1965 in Germany and grew up in Switzerland. He attended the Basel School of Applied Art and the Dusseldorf Art Academy. He realised his first film in 1986. In 2002, he and Hercli Bundi founded Mira Film GmbH, where he also works as producer and co-producer. He is the father of two children and lives in Basel.
Bashkim (2002), Transit - Zurich Airport (2003), Maximum Performance (2004), The Woman with the Five Elephants (2009)
