Everything Is Illuminated

A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, however, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into new forms; a 'blind' old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis, Jr, Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive - a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war. What they find turns all their worlds upside down..

Set in

• ★
  Trochenbrod · Ukraine

  eradicated Jewish shtetl Jonathan searches for
  ★ primary
• ★
  Lutsk · Ukraine

  base of Alex's family heritage-tour agency and grandfather's claimed hometown
  ★ primary
• ★
  Kolki · Ukraine

  grandfather's real hometown near Trachimbrod before the Nazi attack
  ★ primary
• Odessa · Ukraine

  Alex and grandfather depart from Odessa