
wohin
wir gehen (WT)
wohin
wir gehen
Three periods: childhood, early adolescence, and adulthood. We follow Tati’s first years of life, the loving care of her grandmother Valentina, and the daily work of her single mother Elena in the oppressive two-room apartment of a large Kazakh city. Nearly a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, Elena is single-handedly trying to keep the family afloat with the exhausting work at the orphanage while meeting the demands of her authoritarian mother. A few years later, Tati and Elena are living in Germany with Alex, an immigrant from Eastern Europe. At first glance, this is a liberation from the stressful living conditions and the oppressive mother-daughter relationship. However, Tati has difficulties finding her way in the new environment and the new family structure. The supposedly perfect family image crumbles when Elena’s new partner shows his true face.
With these experiences as a foundation, Tati reaches her teenage years. Since her divorce from Alex, Tati now bears much of the responsibility for herself and her mother. Her pent-up anger and frustration now bubble out bit by bit, in escapades with her friends, but also in heated disputes with Elena, who behaves more and more like Valentina. To break the cycle of family dynamics that have been repeating themselves for generations, the two women learn to deal with each other as Elena takes personal responsibility and Tati manages to look beyond her own situation and put herself in her mother’s shoes.