Video Essay, 2007, 10 min.

"To my beloved daughter, so that you might understand where I have come from, and where I am going."

The above inscription appeared neatly written in a book, handed down from mother to daughter. It was a paperback copy of Milan Kundera's
Ignorance. Much like the heroine of the book, the director’s Czech mother went into exile following the Soviet invasion of August 1968. She found herself building a new life in Israel, frequently overwhelmed by nostalgia and longing. As the new democracy sets in in the Czech Republic, she plans a romantic voyage home.

Motherland is a daughter’s journey into her mother’s nostalgia, and perhaps her own longing for a place and a time she has never known. Disconnected from her mother’s land and tongue, Hoffman explores her mother’s memory, and through it, the process of remembering itself.

was created as part of a seminar by Ariella Azoulay