Borsch in Buenos Aires tells the story of Misha, a Ukranian immigrant and his family living in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the relationship with his childhood friend Christian, a French filmmaker.
In the 1990’s, Christian worked as a photographer in the Ukraine and lived with his friend Misha and his young family. During this time, he made a series of intimate photographic portraits of the family’s daily lives and Misha’s work as a moonlight shoemaker, desperate to feed his family in the social chaos that followed the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. For many years Christian lost touch with Misha and his family until he finally received a letter from Argentina telling him that his friend and his wife and two daughters had left the Ukraine and, though not speaking a word of Spanish, were now living in Buenos Aires. Misha had found a job in the kitchen of a café and they had a small place to live in the suburbs outside the sprawling Argentine capital. Misha was happy, as at last he and his family could make an honest living without having to deal with the Mafia and the corruption that he so hated in his beloved Ukraine.
This 50 minute documentary film is a personal insight into the life of an immigrant family and their intimate relationship with the filmmaker. The narrative weaves together two strands, the life in the former Soviet Ukraine, told in voice over, still photographs and archive material and the present, shot in open documentary video, of Misha living in Buenos Aires and the journey of his childhood friend Christian to be reunited with him.
Borsch in Buenos Aires tells the intensely human story of an individual and his family as representative of a Diaspora and the increasing economic and political migrations that are one of the social phenomena’s of modern times.
Directed and Filmed: Christian Bitsch
Producers: Christian Bitsch & Phil Cox
Edited by Napoleon Ditatore