not how or when or where but yes

In the summer of 2019 Kaiya was a subject for the film ‘not how or when or where but yes’ a collaborative documentary that pursued her as she travelled by rail through Europe, pre Brexit.

Directed and produced by Lea Semmen and Marvin Hesse.

So we are wary. We go slowly. We don’t know yet what each other’s opinions are.

We talk about Brexit,

and youth unemployment,

and police brutality,

and salt consumption,

and the meat industry,

and the film industry,

and how to say thank you and cheers for the beer in as many different languages as we can manage.

And we talk about gender and sport and religion and care for the elderly and science and migration

and the tangible difference between awareness and fear.

And none of this is small talk. Everything is impactful. Everything leaves me with another small splinter of consciousness about the world around me

and who fills it up.

But we don’t go full throttle. We allow some space for difference, for understanding, for the benefit of the doubt.

Because we are strangers. Strangers who have stumbled upon each other on a train

or in a hostel

in a bar

or far from home.

We are strangers. So we are wary. We go slowly. We don’t know yet what each other’s opinions are.