When her mother dies in the forest on the Polish-Belarusian border, a 16-year-old Kurdish girl, Runa, has to quickly grow up to take care of her four younger brothers and her helpless, depressed father. The family deals with trauma in a refugee camp and tries to establish a new life in Poland. Runa's greatest fear is being forced to return to Iraq, where Kurds face the threat of ISIS. She wants to live like her newfound European friends and become a lawyer. But just as her dream of going back to school comes true, a threat appears — deportation. Runa’s escape from everyday problems is a sketchbook filled with drawings expressing her feelings. Gradually, her drawings come to life. The film is a partially animated coming-of-age story in the times of the global refugee crisis.
CREW:
Director: Agnieszka Zwiefka
Cinematographer: Kacper Czubak
Sound: Franciszek Kozłowski, Daniel Adamczyk
Production
CHILLI PRODUCTIONS
Sales:
KFF Sales & Promotion, +48122946945
Awards
54th Giffoni Film Festival 2024, Italy – Best Documentary Award. 21st Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2024 Hungary. 43rd Cambridge Film Festival 2024, United Kingdom - Youth Lab Jury Award. Slamdance Film Festival 2025, USA – The Breakouts Feature Grand Jury Prize. Docaviv - The 26th Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival 2024, Israel - Beyond the Screen Award. 64th Krakow Film Festival 2024, Poland – Golden Hobby-Horse, Special Mention, Special Mention for Runa Husni

Director
Agnieszka Zwiefka
Agnieszka Zwiefka is an award-winning filmmaker. Her films The Queen of Silence (2014) and Scars (2020) were screened at festivals worldwide. She balances reality and fantasy in her movies, creating hybrids that cross the border between documentary and fiction. Zwiefka is a member of European Film Academy (EFA), an alumna of workshops Dok.Incubator, ScripTeast, Nipkow Programme, and Berlinale Talents as well as Meryl Streep’s and Nicole Kidman’s The Writers Lab.Selected Filmography
Silent Trees (2024), Vika! (2023), Scars (2020), TheQueen of Silence (2014)