On the Ground at Berlin International Film Festival, writer and academic Naemi Victoria catches short film A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere.
Grief and motherhood find a home in Fanny Texier’s short film A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere. After losing their mother, twin sisters Emilija and Ona receive an eviction notice that threatens them with the loss of their Williamsburg loft. Faced with an uncertain future, they need to rely on each other to hold their ground. The short film joins them on this three-year journey as a quiet observer. It documents their lives within the four walls of their home and explores how place gains meaning through the people living in it.
Handed down from mother to daughter, the loft forms the foundation of the twins’ family history. Back in the 1970s, their mother, Aldona, had moved into an abandoned factory in Williamsburg alongside other artists. After renovations, the loft became the only home Emilija and Ona would know. Growing up there, they were part of a community, but over time, the social fabric of their neighbourhood came apart as more and more apartments were replaced by coffee chains and luxury apartments. The character of the twins’ neighbourhood is transformed, brick by brick. In light of increasing evictions, the sisters’ loft turns into a rare remnant of the past.
Place serves as a reminder of the past. Spanning from the 1970s to today, the loft anchors Emilija and Ona’s grief for their mother. The short presents its space as a parallel between the sisters’ lives and that of their mother. It combines images of their past with present-day footage and highlights the personal cost of growing economic pressures. When one of the twins becomes pregnant, the story homes in on questions about the future. Unlike herself, Ona’s child will not know the loft as the centre of their lives. Only the twins’ memory will carry on its legacy and that of their mother.
Fanny Texier’s A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere chronicles the growing gentrification of Williamsburg. Through glimpses at Emilija and Ona’s lives, it shows that the soul of a place is made up of its people.
A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere premiered as part of the shorts programme at Berlinale Film on 19th February 2026.
