The Woman with the 5 Elephants

Meet the indomitable 85-year-old Svetlana Geier, perhaps the world's greatest translator of Russian literature into German. She has just completed new translations of Dostoyevsky's five great novels (her five elephants): “Crime and Punishment,” “The Idiot,” The Devils,” “A Raw Youth,” and “The Brothers Karamasov.” Razor sharp and possessed of piercing blue eyes, Geier continues her meticulous work in her home office where she is assisted by exacting collaborators, including a musician who reads her translations out loud. They are in constant pursuit of the exact word that will give the language its rhythm. Born in Ukraine, Geier's teenage facility with languages brought her to the attention of the country's Nazi occupiers during World War II. Now she takes her granddaughter along on a rail journey to her homeland where she hasn't been since 1943. Geier is an extraordinary screen presence who reminds us there's beauty in the world if we look for it. “I believe that each spiritual experience leads us to treat one another better, to not strike others dead. Quite elementary. And I believe that language is a very effective remedy.” THE WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS is gorgeously photographed, at once cerebral and joyous. (In German and Russian with subtitles) –B.B.