Svetlana Geier is considered the world’s preeminent translator of Russian literature into German. She is an indomitable 85-year-old, frail yet charismatic and luminous. The 5 elephants in the title refer to Dostoevsky’s five great novels, all of which Geier has translated. She continues to translate, fascinated by the onion like quality of Dostoevsky’s work, of the “story within the story.” Vadim Jendreyko’s beautifully shot film teases out the story within the story of Geier’s meticulous, precise world. She inhabits the space of her home in the same measured way that she inhabits her texts, noticing everything. Jendreyko journeys with her as she takes her first trip back to her birthplace in the Ukraine since WW2. Geier worked as a translator for the Nazi occupiers during the war and is honest about the fact that she owes her life to the Germans while also acknowledging the horrors of Babi Yar. Jendreyko’s film doesn’t shy away from big truths but it is in the small details that the film really comes alive. Geier talks about the threads in the linens she is ironing with the same quiet intensity that she talks about the work of translation – and you are left hypnotized.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1510726/