FLEDGLINGS
Poland, 2022, 84 min., documentary;
Imaginative and spirited Zosia, sensitive and self-conscious Oskar, and independent, but shy Kinga start their first year at the boarding school for visually impaired and blind children. Like fledglings, the seven-year-olds are too young to leave home. Facing the difficult separation from their parents, they try to support each other…
This is a film about the life lesson on ‘spreading your wings’ and about the things that help us get through another day even though the world is falling to pieces around us. Leaving for the boarding school is a formative moment in the children’s lives. The situation that initially hurts will finally make them stronger. They have no choice but to find motivation to fight, and they change to face this lifetime challenge. They quickly discover that their mum or dad offering a helping hand can be replaced by their classmate. They find out they can lean on each other. Then, they realize nobody understands them as well as another child who goes through the same thing as they do. Friendships develop. Based on empathy, they are exceptionally strong and long-standing.
This film is a journey into the world of children’s inner life, compassion, sensibility, artistic expression and force of character. The world in which the support and closeness of another child is like oxygen, which carries them through the hardest moments.
Prizes:
- Locarno Film Festival (2022)- Marco Zucchi Award
- Millennium Docs Against Gravity (2022) – Bydgoszcz ART.DOC Award – Main Prize;
- Millennium Docs Against Gravity (2022) – Studio and Local Cinema Network Award – Polish Competition;
- Millennium Docs Against Gravity (2022) – Special Award – Grand Prix;
- Millennium Docs Against Gravity (2022) Award of the Mayor of the City of Gdynia – Special Mention;
- TVP Documentary Award – Special Mention;
- European Film Festival “Integration You and I” Koszalin (2022) – “Butterfly” for the best documentary film for “masterful artistic decisions and their bravura execution”
- Media Festival “Man in Danger” Łódź (2022) – Kazimierz Karabasz “Patient Eye” Award for “a moving story about children’s relationships formed from the need for closeness and mutual support, and a subtle observation of learning independence in unfamiliar surroundings”
Polish Film Award Eagle (2023) – Nomination in the category: Best Documentary Film.
