rose ausländer ~ wer hofft / ist jung

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BUKOWINA II

ans verflossene Ufer

Like Rose Ausländer I was born in Czernowitz in the Ukraine. There I spent the first 6 1/2 years of my life before my parents and I moved here to Düsseldorf, Germany, where Rose Ausländer died. {My father works now at the nursing home she died at.}

The relationship to my homeland was a difficult one many many years. And then I finally grew older, got interested in art and culture and stumbled upon Andrey Tarkovsky's work.

My first Tarkovsky movie was Zerkalo - not the best movie to start with, because it's rather difficult to watch. But I immediately fell in love with the landscapes, the light and the warm and familiar feeling and had to realise, that I'm connected to it, because my roots are in the country he portrais so sensitive.

So Tarkovsky's work was the first step to finally rediscover my origins and reconcile with the fact that I have always felt torn inside.

{I write that, because the picture in the picture is a still from Ivanovo detstvo. My favourite film of Tarkovsky; not at least because of the birch wood I'm longing for.}

So I haven't seen my homeland since then. But if everything will be okay, I will go there by train next year.