Olena

Three stories of immigrants trying to start new lives in Poland: an Afghan traumatised by the war, a Ukrainian lost in her own body, and a Belarusian running away from painful love.

We meet ornithologist Anna in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. But the woman returns to Rwanda to visit the graves of her loved ones. The director originally worked on the movie with her husband Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor – Crystal Globe, KVIFF 2005), but after his death in 2014 she eventually finished this challenging picture alone.

Actress Olga's political idealism and hopes for a better tomorrow are put to the hardest test. The authoritarian, omniscient communist power decides to break the woman when her father is hospitalized and fighting for his life, and her husband is in custody. Olga must find herself in a new situation and make an impossible choice.