A film by Aria Covamonas.

A film by Aria Covamonas.

An ecology of signs lurking amid seductive 16mm travel footage echoes with post-colonial reverberations in Ana Vaz's deceptively corrosive, award-winning Occidente

An ecology of signs lurking amid seductive 16mm travel footage echoes with post-colonial reverberations in Ana Vaz's deceptively corrosive, award-winning Occidente

We are in East Berlin, 1978. It’s summer, three years after Wassilly’s death. Nelly’s boyfriend and Alexei’s father died in a car accident in Russia. Since he is dead, Nelly wants to leave too. Away from the GDR, to leave the grief and the memories behind. To get a fresh start. That should be possible in the West, or so Nelly believes.

We are in East Berlin, 1978. It’s summer, three years after Wassilly’s death. Nelly’s boyfriend and Alexei’s father died in a car accident in Russia. Since he is dead, Nelly wants to leave too. Away from the GDR, to leave the grief and the memories behind. To get a fresh start. That should be possible in the West, or so Nelly believes.