Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt

Small House

by Olga Grjasnowa
in a version by Nina Mattenklotz and Sonja Szillinsky
Directed by Nina Mattenklotz

"You gradually believed that you felt comfortable where you were. Basically, you felt just as comfortable there as you did across the street." (Georges Perec) - Masha, who fled to Germany from Azerbaijan with her parents in the 1990s, learns early on that language means power: at school, at offices, in everyday life - and in love. Masha now speaks five languages fluently, lives with her boyfriend Elias and is planning her career as an interpreter at the United Nations when Elias falls seriously ill. Masha's painstakingly constructed world begins to totter. Her search for her identity and a place to grieve eventually leads her to Israel, where she is confronted with her Jewish family and political conflicts that evoke memories of war. Olga Grjasnowa's novel from 2012 tells the moving and light-hearted story of a young, traumatized woman who, transcending language and borders, asks how the burden of the past and the right to a free life can be reconciled.