A filmmaker and a photographer set out on a search for clues to reconstruct their grandmother’s life. Her story is like something out of a period drama, yet it’s all real. After the war, Ella returned to Lithuania to wait for her fiancé. Then the iron curtain separated her from the rest of her family, and all traces of Ella were lost. When she was 72, she killed herself; her life remained a mystery to later generations of the family. “What we Leave Behind” is the story of two sisters striving to understand the previous generations – not out of pure historical interest, but rather in the hope of ending a seemingly never-ending series of disasters and suicides in their family. In unhurried, rhythmic sequences, underpinned from time to time by a lovely soundtrack, the film unfolds from a family story into a reflection on the cruelty of the 20th century.