Mrs Schmidt Crosses the Oder

As an ethnic German immigrant, Susanne Schmidt left her Polish hometown of Wroclaw/Breslau in 1990 to build a new life for herself in reunified Germany. A trained photographer, she ends up in Marktredwitz in Bavaria, where she first works as a cashier in a supermarket, then as a carer for the elderly. She gives birth to her daughter Annemarie and waits for Pjotr, the child’s father, to finally join her from Poland. She believes in a more socially just world in the West, while Pjotr is increasingly committed to changing the system in the East. From now on, the river Oder separates the couple not only geographically but also in terms of their ideals – as a choice between two alternatives that seem mutually exclusive. Years later, the hopes associated with their respective awakenings have not been realised: In Poland, nationalist tendencies are strengthening with the PiS party; in Germany, neo-Nazis are becoming more visible and louder. Old patterns threaten to repeat themselves and the present cannot detach itself from the past, against which Susanne’s daughter Annemarie in particular is now rebelling and attempting her own escape. But in 2021, when her mother is on her deathbed, Annemarie has to ask herself how closely her personal biography is linked to the violent history of a country and the family into which she was born.