At first, the photographer found it hard to penetrate the surface of the closed community. “In the beginning I thought the atmosphere in Transnistria to be cold and that people were very reserved. But I think the reason for that lies in the language barrier. They can become kind of paranoid when they see a foreigner from the western world with a camera. Many people don’t relate with western values. Instead, they admire Putin and hope that Transnistria will become a part of Russia,” she says.

Teenagers and young people, however, were very keen to make friends with Autz, curious of the different world she’s come from. “The young generation was very interested in me and they were curious about what I was doing in the country,” she recalls. “There are not many foreigners in Transnistria and most people have never been to western Europe, so they were really excited and wanted to spend time with me. Although it was very hard to communicate, people tried to speak with the help of Google Translate or their English-speaking friends. A lot of the time, I was just lucky to meet anybody.”