Silent Trees

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 4 younger brothers and 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, another threat appears – the threat of deportation. Runa’s escape from everyday problems is a sketchbook filled with drawings that express what she feels. Gradually, her drawings come to life. The film is a partially animated coming of age story in the times of the global refugee crisis.