The poetic program “You Will Hear the Thunder and Remember Me” by documentary filmmaker Lora Karion brings together the destinies of two women from different countries and eras. Stalinist Russia and modern France – two women, each marked by courage, radical choices, and a poetic path.
The first part features a bilingual reading of eight poems by Anna Akhmatova, recounting the dramatic period in the life of the great Russian poet.
Despite 30 years of censorship and the danger of continuing to write, Akhmatova refused to leave her country. She memorized her poems or entrusted them to friends to save them from oblivion, later burning the manuscripts. Her voice reaches us today as a troubling mirror of modern Russia.
In the winter of 1945–1946, in a deserted Leningrad, the poet spent five nights in conversation with Isaiah Berlin, an Englishman of Russian origin, philosopher, and historian – the first European she met after refusing to leave Russia in the early 1920s. According to some accounts, their nocturnal meeting proved tragic for Akhmatova. They never met again, but their brief, intense relationship took on an almost cosmic meaning in the poet’s inner world.
Lora Karion recreates the aftermath of this story in semi-darkness. She leads us on an almost mystical journey, where poems are sung in Russian and whispered in French – a final attempt to redeem the pain.
The second part features Karion’s short film “Mailbox”, telling the story of an unknown woman in France in 2025 and her life-changing choice. She explains why she chose to live alone in nature, freely and without a postal address – in defiance of laws prohibiting building without permits and living in self-made shelters. Voice-over narration and the poetry of Adrienne Rich emotionally illustrate the woman’s solitary struggle for free existence.
Adrienne Rich (born 1929 in Baltimore) was an American poet, essayist, literary critic, professor, and feminist theorist. In 1966 she taught poetry at Columbia University in New York, where she encountered radical ideas, particularly the anti-Vietnam and women’s liberation movements.
In her book “On Lies, Secrets, and Silence”, she wrote: “We, women, have often experienced an unhealthy sense of deep division about the truth of our experience. Our future depends on the mental health of each of us, and beyond subjective, personal aspects we intend to describe our reality fully, as clearly as possible for one another.”
In “Dream of a Common Language” (quoted in Karion’s film), she reflects on the concept of a shared language to be achieved through poetry, art, and feminist thought.
To conclude the evening – discussion with the audience about the meaning of poetry in life.
Admission: voluntary donation
| Date: | 03.10.2025 |
| Time: | 19:00 |
| Venue: | ART-CAFÉ AVIATOR |
| Address: | Lindower Str. 18, 13347 Berlin |
| Phone: | 030 28 38 91 52 |
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