The Daughters,
The Interpreters and
The Family

The non-fiction artist’s book The Daughters, The Interpreters and The Family brings together transcriptions, poems, dreams, paintings, and drawings. These texts and images narrate conflict-related experiences and memories from three distinct perspectives: second-generation Dutch-Bosnian girls, interpreters working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and a family who fled the war in Chechnya. The texts are based on transcriptions of extensive conversations and interviews conducted by filmmaker Eliane Bots as part of her film projects. In collaboration with the interviewees, Eliane reworked the transcriptions into the texts featured in this publication.

A dedicated section features English translations of Chechen poems, many of which were previously accessible only in Chechen and Russian. These translations are accompanied by notes and footnotes that contextualize the poems within the history of the Russo-Chechen Wars.

A 45-minute audio track accompanies the book, guiding the reader with small instructions in a non-linear way through moments of interviewing, listening, singing, reciting, sharing, and being together.

There are two ways of presenting The Daughters, The Interpreters and The Family, as an interactive individual or collective experience, allowing readers or audiences to encounter its constellation of voices either in solitude or through shared attention.

The Daughters, The Interpreters and The Family is supported by Josine de Bruyn Kops Fonds and Stroom The Hague