My Mother

Dir. Maj Wechselmann, Produktionsgruppen Wechselmann AB, 2017 | 76′, Sweden, Canada

The film project was presented at the Baltic Sea Docs 2013.

Though the director’s mother, Regina Korinman, has lived a life battered by tumultuous historical events, the one constant strand has been her courage to take a stand against authoritarian repression. Following the twisted strand, the film is director Maj Wechselmann’s testament to her mother’s life and also a letter to her. From a childhood in a Jewish village in Ukraine and surviving dire times to escaping through anti-Semitic Europe to Montreal, to union activism and taking part in the resistance movement against Hitler in WWII in Denmark, and finally fleeing to Sweden. The girl born into a deeply religious family in Ukraine died in 1985 in Sweden, an atheist and communist.

Maj Wechselmann (1942) as a documentary film director is known for her radically critical views of social processes. She has directed 49 films, often on current political topics. Wechselmann received wider recognition in 1973 with her film about the behind-the-scenes at Sweden’s Saab military airplane manufacturing facility.