Appassionata

“One can lie with words, but not with music.” Alena Cherny is a concert pianist through and through. Her playing reveals everything from sorrow and rage to enthusiasm and love. Music has accompanied her through difficult times: raised in rural Ukraine, her mother sent her to boarding school in Kiev at the age of nine – a childhood far from home. Following the trauma of Chernobyl and a leukaemia, she relocated to Switzerland, leaving her daughter at home with her parents. Today she is an established artist, and wants to fulfil her heart’s desire: to donate a piano to the music school in the village where she was born. Alena Cherny sets off with her instrument on a journey into her past. She visits her mother, the places of her childhood, her boarding school and Chernobyl. Documentary filmmaker Christian Labhart accompanied her on this trip back to her roots. Appassionata is a portrait of a strong woman and her passion. (Zurich Film Festival)