An Upcoming Documentary from Wanderkino Productions

Ladis and the Land

Every generation inherits a world it didn't create.

Our Film’s Guiding Premise

What do we do with the world we've been given?

This film will be realized through generous support of like minded donors.

Please consider making a tax deductible contribution to help bring it to life.

When two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof began spending more time on his family’s farm in Yamhill, Oregon, he found his hometown struggling with economic decline. After decades of reporting on problems around the world, he wanted to contribute to the future of the place that raised him.

Together with his wife, journalist Sheryl WuDunn, he replaced his father Ladis’s cherry orchard with a vineyard. For Ladis, a refugee who rebuilt his life after World War II, this land had offered a new beginning. Now, it was being asked to sustain another generation.

Ladis and the Land explores one family’s relationship to the farm and the rural community around it, asking what we owe the places we inherit, and whether caring for one small corner of the world can make a difference.

All donations to “Ladis and the Land” are 100% tax deductible, thanks to our fiscal sponsor Grateful Film Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN 92-0785739).

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The Story

Why Make This Film

Director’s Note

I first came across the Kristof story through their wine. An effort to understand a vineyard led me into a family’s relationship to land across generations and continents.

I was captivated by Nick’s father, Ladis. After war, imprisonment, displacement, and the loss of his family’s land, he built a new life on a farm in Oregon. Decades later, Nick inherited this land and faced a question: what to do next?

I’ve long been drawn to World War II stories and the impossible moral choices ordinary people faced. That curiosity drew me to Ladis. Learning about Nick, I saw a connection between the questions he pursued around the world and those unfolding on this small farm.

Beyond this piece of land is Yamhill, where economic hardship exists alongside deep roots, ambition, and attachment to home. Rural communities are often reduced to voting blocs or stataistics. Their lives are more complicated than those arguments allow. I wanted to hear what people there had seen change, and what they wanted for their town’s future.

Lately, I’ve been asking these questions too. Waking up to face 2026 can be challenging. We inherit systems, politics, histories, and landscapes we didn’t choose. What do we do with what we’ve been given? What can we do? What should we?

What resonates with me is Nick’s belief that caring for one place can still be a meaningful act. When I find it easy to surrender to cynicism, I want to make a film about that willingness to stay involved, and invite audiences to consider where they might do the same.

Cate Smierciak