In the early 1960s the Rowe family of Wexford placed an advert in a Soviet newspaper seeking to make contact with a cousin, Alexander, whom they believed resided somewhere in Russia. One of the family members who placed the advert, David Rowe, remembered “not really expecting that anyone would notice”.
But soon, Alexander Rou, as his Irish surname was styled in Russian, responded. This was how the Rowes of Wexford made contact with their long-lost cousin, by then a celebrated director of Soviet children’s cinema.
Source: The Russian-Irish filmmaker whose magical movies shaped Soviet childhoods