Perla
A psychological drama set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Perla follows an artist who has fled Czechoslovakia for Vienna to start anew – only to be confronted with her past.
In early 1980s Vienna, painter Perla has rebuilt her life with her daughter, Julia, and her new partner, Josef, a Tibetologist. She has left behind the traumas of her youth in communist Czechoslovakia and now lives in exile. But when Julia’s father contacts her unexpectedly to say he is gravely ill, Perla decides to cross the border once more. Caught between past and present, she begins to make reckless decisions that threaten her freedom and strain her relationship with Julia.
There are countless stories about escape – but far fewer about going back. And yet that is precisely the story Alexandra Makarová tells in this quietly powerful portrait of identity and resilience. The director herself comes from a family of refugees who fled Russia after the October Revolution.