I am currently working on a documentary about Kaliningrad - a city with a long and complicated history, situated in what was once German East Prussia and is now a Russian 'exclave' in the EU - just 250 kilometers from Sweden and at an approximately equal distance from Moscow and Brussels.

For the great majority of Westerners and even for Russians from 'Russia proper" the Kaliningrad region is still more or less a "terra incognita", a white spot on the map and what little information that comes from there is usually negative.

But Kaliningrad is much more than just problems, it’s an exciting and beautiful region with optimistic, well-educated and dynamic people with roots in all of the former Soviet republics. Lately there has also been an influx of people from other countries - even as far as Japan...