Susanna Alakoski

Ewa Rudling's career as a photographer got an explosive start. She was in Paris when the student revolt began in May 1968. Ewa borrowed a camera and the pictures she took at the barricades at the Sorbonne University ended up in British The Observer. Physical and psychological abuse was part of young Ewa Rudling's everyday life. She had to take care of the little sister, but never felt any support from her mother. At the age of 19, Ewa too off for Rome. Her Nordic looks and appearance made her a model. Later she moved to New York and on the skating rink in Central Park, she met her prospective husband, Claude Duthuit, daughter's son to the artist Henri Matisse.

One morning just before Christmas, Leena receives a phone call from a hospital in her childhood hometown telling her that her mother is dying. This news takes her on a journey to face her mother for the first time in her adult life. Leena has fought all her life to let go of her grief over her lost and dark childhood. She is now forced to deal with her past to be able to move on.

Literature talkshow with Jessika Gedin.