Santa Barbara

When I was seven years old, living with my family in Moscow, my mother woke me in the middle of the night and told me we were going on a trip. It was 1996. The Soviet Union had already collapsed — and by then, so had my family. We left without saying goodbye to my father, and the next day arrived in a new world: America.

Inspired by the 1980s American soap opera Santa Barbara, my mother had placed an ad through a Russian matchmaking agency, searching for a man who could help her build a new life in the United States. She was 35 years old. We landed in California — in the town of Santa Barbara itself — where we were met by an older man who would soon become her husband, and eventually take the place of my father.

In an attempt to reimagine and reconstruct the past, I collaborated with one of the original writers of Santa Barbara, cast actors to portray my family, and returned to both of my childhood homes to reenact our departure from Russia and arrival in America.