LAST LETTERS FROM MY GRANDMA

To better understand yourself and the world around you, you must dive into your past and unravel the full story of your roots — who your ancestors were and the lives they led.

A few years ago, my father gave me old letters written by his mother, my Russian. My grandmother died of suicide in 1989, when the USSR began to fall apart. These letters urged me to travel to Russia to get to know my Russian family and to unravel deep-rooted family secrets.

An old train carries my father and me to his homeland, Asha, in the Russian Ural region. But in 2021, everything changes when Russia starts its invasion of Ukraine. Family members with whom I had rebuilt a bond become distant and less talkative.

This film is an urgent dialogue between the old and young generation in the former Soviet Union; between a past that is disappearing and a present still carrying its scars, repeating history in subtle ways. Last Letters from My Grandma seeks to illuminate the weight of the Soviet legacy and make its ongoing impact visible.