At the start of World War II, Maria Werla was taken from Poland and made a slave in a Soviet work camp in North Russia. She was not alone. There were thousands of other Poles, victims of the Hitler - Stalin’s pact. I remember but I wasn’t yet born.

My mother's struggle to survive influenced me. Protest became my culture in the USA. I forged an outsider’s identity. All my films are encounters with fellow “others”, living on the edge of society.

My mother asked, “Why do you want to film me now”? I could not give her an answer. I did not fully understand why myself. All I can say is that I need to arrive to some yet unknown place to take sweet revenge, shaking my insanity like a fist at the world, screaming and kicking that my mother and I survived!

East of Paradise is a diptych about two characters who have many and one story to tell.