Join the Mira Film newsletter
About the charismatic translator Swetlana Geier. Her new translations of Dostoyevsky's five great novels from Russian into German are her life's work and literary milestones.
December 09, 2021
Vadim Jendreyko's timeless film THE WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS will be shown as a matinée screening at kult.kino Basel on 12th of December 2021 at 10.00 a.m. on the occasion of the double exhibition 200 Years of Dostoevsky & Russian Icons. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director and translator Gabrielle de Groër, moderated by Nadine Reinert, director of the Philosophicum Basel.
«This was one of the most movingly beautiful films I have ever seen» – WIFV-DC.
«One has to read Dostoyevsky like a treasure-seeker: Jewels are buried in the most inconspicuous places and are often only to be discovered at a second or third reading. He is inexhaustible.»
«It is a theme that I do not explicitly search for in my work but one which I repeatedly come upon, one behind which the question of my own identity is concealed: Who am I?”»
«Her translation work, the work on and with languages was for her an existential-, a life expression and not just any work and for her there was no alternative. She had no other home than the home in the language, in the language itself and the languages she worked with. »
«On the occasion of the 10th day of Swetlana Geier's death, the director thinks back.»
Protagonists
Swetlana Geier
Anna Götte
Hannelore Hagen
Jürgen Klodt
Written and directed by
Vadim Jendreyko
Director of photography
Niels Bolbrinker
Stéphane Kuthy
Sound
Patrick Becker
Editing
Gisela Castronari-Jaensch
Production manager
Thiemo Hehl
Mixing
Florian Beck
Original music
Daniel Almada
Martin Iannaccone
Production Switzerland
Mira Film GmbH
Hercli Bundi, Vadim Jendreyko
Production Germany
Filmtank GmbH
Thomas Tielsch
Co-production
ZDF/3sat, Redaktion: Inge Classen
Schweizer Fernsehen, Redaktion: Urs Augstburger und Marion Bornschier
With financial support of
MFG Baden Württemberg
Bundesamt für Kultur
Fachausschuss Audiovision und Multimedia der Kantone Basel-Stadt und Basel-Landschaft
Volkart Stiftung
S. Fischer Stiftung
Stiftung Edith Maryon
Robert Bosch Stiftung
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
UBS Kulturstiftung
Migros Kulturprozent
Focal Stagepool
Developed with the support of the
MEDIA Programme of the European Community