There Are People in the Forest
2023 · 10m · Poland
Directed by Szymon Ruczynski
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic, provocative, tender
On the Polish-Belarusian border, a lonely limping man is seized by armed men and transported into the forest while nearby villagers watch in silence. Using a deceptively childlike drawing style, the wordless film documents the brutal humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Białowieża Forest since 2021, where migrants face violent pushbacks, cold, hunger, and illness at the EU's eastern edge.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Solo Polish filmmaker from the actual Białowieża Forest who personally delivered humanitarian aid to refugees, using a child's-drawing aesthetic to portray state violence — that dissonance is the whole point and it's earned. Yes.
Ruczyński depicting state violence at the Polish-Belarusian border in a wordless child's-drawing aesthetic — made by a filmmaker who personally delivered humanitarian aid to refugees in that forest — produces precisely the kind of stark dissonance that necessary political cinema requires. Ten minutes; urgent and exact.
Wordless, child's-drawing aesthetic depicting Polish-Belarusian border pushbacks, made by Szymon Ruczyński who lived in the depicted forest and personally delivered humanitarian aid — Lodz Film School production, 1,545 views. The naive-style/state-violence dissonance is the exact ethical and formal choice the subject demands.
Reviews
A film which speaks about one of the burning issues of our time, an injustice that the western world has imposed on people whose precarious situation it has created in the first place. Through deceptively simple animation style and straight-forward narrative, it tells its story convincingly and with courage.
The vast forests on the Polish-Belarusian border are where a brutal migration policy plays out. Using simple techniques, this animated film tells of the tragedies that occur every day at the EU's heavily guarded external border. This significant animation film without words can be shown everywhere on earth to all generations.
Festivals
- Krakow Film Festival 2023, Best European Short Film
- Krakow Film Festival 2023, Special Award
- Interfilm Berlin 2024, Best Animation
- Norwegian Short Film Festival 2024, Golden Chair for Best International Short Film
- Go Short International Short Film Festival 2024, Youth Jury Award
- Żubroffka International Short Film Festival 2023, Honorable Mention
- Prix Interculturel 2024, Honorable Mention