Sixteen-year-old Runa fled ISIS controlled Kurdistan with her parents and four younger brothers. Trapped in a forest between Belarus and Poland her mother is felled by hypothermia and later dies in a Polish hospital. The family had spent 18 days in a frozen forest attempting to enter Poland. The Polish government had previously retaliated against Belarus for its decision to grant tourist visas to migrants so they could reach the EU through Poland by sealing off the Polish Belarus border. Runa and family arrive in Poland.
Progressing from a Polish migrant camp they move to a flat in a major Polish city. Runa is asked or is it cajoled by her father who constantly says all will be as Allah wishes, to basically assume a motherly role in housekeeping and child minding while at the same time attending school with her brother. One suspects Runa has other ideas about her life but falls under her father’s command. Adding to the stress Runa has endured she then is diagnosed with glaucoma and undergoes successful laser surgery to manage it. The physicians advise her to avoid stress as it aggravates eye pressure.
Finally, when there is hope of “normal life” deportation possibilities arise and Runa’s father eventually appears at a deportation hearing shaving his beard very germane to the anti-Islamist movements in Europe. Upon arrival to the Polish refugee camp a Kurdish contact advises Runa’s father to shave his beard as it makes Europeans ill at ease fearing violence. Runa’s father responds with a smile as aren’t we all men he verbalizes. Suddenly at the deportation hearing he is clean shaven. He is learning the game!
Runa’s father wins his deportation hearing and is permitted to remain in Poland. What does this mean for Runa as a surrogate mother? There is enough here in the dialogues to give one a strong impression Runa’s father is a very conservative man. Runa may have escaped ISIS oppression and possibly death but she ends up in Poland a progressive liberal society where a women can advance and have a chance at fulfilling their dreams. Will she be caught in her father’s conservatism or realize her dreams?
All said and done a horrific beginning to Runa’s escape to Poland. Over time life changes and some integration into Polish society is achieved by Runa but where will it lead.
A story about the stress of urgent migration and the resilience of those who undertake it. Runa’s family odyssey may be common to many of us even if far in the past but a film like “Silent Trees” is a healthy reminder that all of us in North America are migrants even if some have been there prior to European colonialism.
“Silent Trees” will be screening at HOT DOCS on 5May2024.
It is written and directed by Agnieszka Swiefka.
RKS 2024 Film Rating 74/100.
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