Haikus on a Plum Tree is Mujah’s visual memoir, a film in progress – a window into the story of her family saga. Her grandmother Topazia Alliata, a Sicilian princess, painter, and World War II survivor together with her husband, the anthropologist/ethnologist Fosco Maraini, and her three daughters, kept a dairy of their imprisonment in a Japanese concentration camp that is the seed of the story Mujah unfolds through her project. A fascinating perspective into their experience, their choices, and how that still impacts the generation/s that followed.
Topazia Alliata’s war diary
Topazia and Fosco Maraini with their three daughters outside the Japanese concentration camp
Pencil in a Concentration Camp, the poem at the beginning, is read and written by John Minczeski and dedicated to Topazia Alliata. It is part of a book of poems called Circle Routes (Akron Series in Poetry).
Please follow Mujah’s story and support her on Facebook
and on her website: Haikus on a Plum Tree
Stay tuned for their kickstarter campaign happening very soon! We’ll be updating links here as well.
End music is So Soldier by #1 Dads
Mujah with her grandfather’s book Secret Tibet
Mujah. Such a full life! It is amazing how difficulties result in stronger people! Your family is a perfect example. I talk with many of those wonderful McDonalds and they are all so happy that you bring your beautiful children to upstate NY so often. They understand how this takes time and thought and tell me how thankful they are! Say Hi to your sister for me. I have the head of a sieve so cannot remember her name, but I do remember how interesting she was. Find myself thinking in haikus,especially as I lie in bed awaiting sleep. That is why you do not get printouts of these. I can put them on my iPad, but don’t know how to print from it.