In Sarmatia

Volker Koepp named one of his first films Greetings from Sarmatia in 1972. In those days, he was searching for the landscapes of poet Johannes Bobrowski in Lithuanian Memelland. On old maps, "Sarmatia" is described as vast plains east of the Vistula, from the Baltic Sea in the north down to the Black Sea. There lies the Russian Kaliningrad region; Lithuania, White Russia, Poland, Moldavia and the Ukraine. Time and time again, Koepp visited the people there, often the old, whose lives reached back to the beginning of the calamitous 20th century. Now he has renewed his interest in this landscape. Alongside the memories in this new film, young people give the connection to the immediate present. They tellof their lives and describe everyday life in the lands of their birth. And always not for away is the question: Should I stay or leave?