Last night I had the pleasure of watching the German film The Woman with the Five Elephants. Filmed in 2010, this documentary showcases the life of the famous Russian to German translator Svetlana Geier. It is predominately in German with English subtitles with the small portion in Russian occurring when she finally returns to her place of birth some 60 years after she was forced to flee during the second world war.
The film begins slowly as it shows her careful translations into German of the enormous volumes of Dostoyevsky’s works. She works quietly and with careful precision both by hand and with a typewriter with the help of her retired professor friends. After introducing her day-to-day life to us, the narrator begins weaving into the film the story of her youth. By learning of the incredible things she witnessed early in her life the audience begins to learn how she made her way from Ukraine to Germany. It is revealed that her facility with the German language at a young age is what saved the lives of both herself and her mother after her father was killed by the Soviet regime.
This is an exceptional film and it will be a delight to anyone such as myself with a love of languages.
