The life of Elena Silver

Alexander Osang tells the story of his family - powerfully narrated by Stefan Kaminski.

Russia, early 20th century. In a small provincial town east of Moscow, the revolutionary Viktor is executed. At that moment, time sweeps over Viktor's daughter Lena like a massive wave. She marries the German textile engineer Robert Silber, follows him to Berlin and Silesia in 1936, where she survives World War II. But then Robert disappears in the turmoil of the post-war period, and Lena must raise their four daughters on her own. They are meant to continue the path that Lena has begun - out of a constricted life, away from misfortune. But is this story true, as Lena has told it to her family?

In 2017, more than twenty years after Lena's death, her grandson, the young filmmaker Konstantin Stein, sets out for Russia. He wants to understand the story of the century and his family in order to understand himself.