Józefa's letters (en) | Michael Daniel Sagatis

In 1940, Józefa Bujdo writes a collection of barley legible GULAG letters in an obscure borderlands dialect. In 1972, Józefa's grandson composes a piece of music that is recorded once with no sheet music. In 2016 Józefa's great grandson discovers both the letters and music and works with a philologist to decode the letters and a musicologist to transcribe the music, thereby restoring a chapter of lost family history. "Józefa's Letters - Extraction from Oblivion", is a compelling account of exile to a Soviet labour camp at the start of WW2 and explores how the distortive and traumatic legacy of the real politik, pursued by European powers (in the Baltics and Eastern Europe) during the 20th century, is carried and felt by successive generations. Michael Daniel Sagatis is an independent researcher and filmmaker born in the UK from Slavic and Celtic heritage. He has travelled and lived in former Soviet republics and accumulated various media including original archive material that has enabled him to premier his documentary exhibition performance "Józefa’s Letters - Extraction From Oblivion" that unites his family experience of political repression with his own creative expressions. For all enquiries or links to versions in other subtitled languages (RU, UA, DE & PL) - please email Michael at sagatism@gmail.com