Miklos Klaus Rozsa(HU/CH)/Olga Stefan (RO/USA/CH)/ Gabi Basalici (RO) – Fragments of a Life is a video combining intimate family conversations between Olga Stefan and her grandmother, Sorana Ursu (now 91), with footage, photographs, and other images from the past and present, creating an assemblage of memories and impressions that both support and reject historical events. Through the personal account of Sorana Ursu, whose father was killed during the 1941 Iasi pogrom, along with those of other members of the family now in Israel and the United States, biographical fragments are pieced together in a desperate attempt to establish a coherent narrative of life, while acknowledging the incomplete image of reality they present, the malleability of memory, and the tragedy of forgetting that is an inherent part of survival. The story follows Sorana Ursu’s life in the wartime years, her evolution into a communist and ultimately her disillusionment, while exploring issues of identity, migration, displacement, and belonging.
Still from video….
Camera and Photography by Miklos Klaus Rozsa
Editing by Gabi Basalici
Photographer and political activist (b. 1954, Hungary), Miklós Rozsa is also a journalist who emigrated to Switzerland with his family after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Deeply involved in the left-wing politics of the 1980s student movements and motivated by autonomous reporting, Rozsa assembled an extensive picture library which was used for all kinds of publications in the scene, for leaflets, and press materials. Besides the inherent documentary value of the images, Rózsa considered his photography to be a political act. Rózsa “shot back” with his camera, trying to uncover informants and to capture police brutality.
Itinerant Projects 