Can pass­ing through a forest change the fate of a 16-year-old girl overnight? The lives of Runa and her family are now divid­ed into before and after cross­ing this forest.

With the Belaru­sian gov­ern­ment issu­ing visas to refugees, some chose the forest at the Belarus-Poland border as their route to Europe - unaware that Polish border guards would block their entry and no way to return to Belarus. Some refugees have been trapped in this forest.

A Kur­dish mother becomes one of the vic­tims of this forest, losing her life. Now, Runa, the 16-year-old daugh­ter, must take on the respon­si­bil­i­ty of caring for both her sib­lings and her father in Poland.

Through an inti­mate lens, the film cap­tures Runa’s strug­gle to rebuild her family’s life from scratch in a for­eign coun­try with an unfa­mil­iar lan­guage. But in the dis­tance, a light of hope shines. Runa’s strength drives the narrative.

Agniesz­ka Zwief­ka, obtained her PhD in 2007 in new media and ever since worked as a lec­tur­er of tele­vi­sion jour­nal­ism and inter­ac­tive films at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wro­claw spe­cial­iz­ing in mul­ti­me­dia sto­ry­telling. Films: THE QUEEN OF SILENCE (2014), SCARS (2020), SILENT TREES (2024)