Kamila Serwicka: Blossoming

“Growing up, I witnessed my mother’s fear and suffering as my father humiliated her, draining her will to live. My two younger sisters and I were insulted, beaten, and thrown out of the house – punished for opposing him. Anger became my strength. It helped me escape that home. For years, I gathered the strength to finally face the past and tell our story. This film is my companion through our transformation. I want to show the power that rises, when women unite, to give hope and courage to
those who are still silenced.”

This is how the Polish debutant director motivates, why she wanted to make the film. “Anger became my strength”, she writes and yet the final result, the personal documentary she has made is full of feelings of love and compassion towards mother and sisters conveyed through a beautifully mastered camera work, she performs in a film that has moments of intimacy, including a surprising end confrontation with the father, who moved away from the house or was moved away if I get it right, by the authorities. Kamila talks to the camera in close-ups, it is a film that tells about domestic violence, you see how the mother is suffering and it is a relief for her to go to the Netherlands, away from the house. We get close to the sisters N a t a l i a, K a m i l a, K i n g a, the mother Agnieszka and grandmother Danuta.

The grandmother has her own room in the house. We see her go to the field to wash her face in a water hole, wonderful, and we see her and Kamila almost dancing in a bath tub, where a dress is being washed.

Everything is done with care and love, the cinematic solutions are made with aesthetic precision. I felt good while watching the film, touched yes with a story that is not unfamiliar, unfortunately, but here told in a language far away from reportage and sensationalism. The film blossoms as it slowly unfolds.

Poland, 2026, 77 mins.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️