Simone Baumann was still a teenager when she left Eastern Germany to study philosophy in the Soviet Union.

She arrived in Rostov-on-Don in the early 80s to empty supermarket shelves, ration coupons for butter, water running only twice a day and a city she wasn’t allowed to leave.

No internet. No quick call home. No exit strategy.

But somewhere between translating philosophy texts with a dictionary at night and listening to professors debate ideas that couldn’t officially be published, she learned something that stayed with her: how to think in context. How to read a system before reacting to it. And how to listen differently.

Today, she leads German Films, representing contemporary German cinema internationally.

When you hear her speak, you realize that international careers aren’t built on glamour. They’re built on moments that stretch you. On cultural friction. And on learning to observe before you act.

*And for the non-Germans here: Leberkäse (literally “liver cheese”) is a Bavarian classic that contains neither liver nor cheese — just warm, finely ground meat baked into a loaf, sliced thick, and best eaten with sweet mustard in a bread roll.