Command someone to make a pearl necklace for you …

An archaeological excavation in Veliki Novgorod brings to light fragments of everyday live, dating back to the 10th century. These documents were starting point for the film. Basic findings of the site are pieces of letters written on birch-bark. Short private messages, which disappear after they were received and read, survived for centuries. I go there to get to know my birthplace. I try to encounter the city not with a touristic view, that is focused on the popular sights, but with an approach to everyday life. This contrasts with my life in Germany. Brief moments of everyday live – merged into a fragmented sequence of film snippets. The film doesn´t express the search for my identity, rather it reflects a mix of both my identities. The texts are from letters, dating back to the the early middle ages, found during archaeological excavations in Veliky Novgorod.