Family relationships are the central motif of this year’s programme. Although this topic is scattered across all categories, it also rightfully deserves its own section. Family networks carry an ambivalent meaning – in our selection, they can connect or save but also bind. Seven riveting films capturing the intricate stories of parents and children examine the complex dynamics of relationships.
The British documentary Motherboard sensitively explores motherhood as a period of the greatest fulfilment as well as of utter frustration. In her personal story, the director creatively records twenty years of single life, which was interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy, a serious illness, and a not always appreciated effort to be a respectful parent. The live action film My Everything points out the burden of the bonds that prevent children from spreading their wings and also opens the topic of having to care for people with disabilities in relation to their autonomy and intimate life.
The transformation of the protective relationship between parent and child is reflected in Year of the Widow. As far as the One World programme is concerned, this is the first time it includes Czech live action film that deals with the unexpected intrusion of death and coming to terms with it. However, death is also part of the touching story of a goldminer from Tierra del Fuego in The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine, in which a son creates an ingenious invention in order to prevent his father’s exhaustion from hard physical work.
Dysfunctional families are presented in the last two films. When Harmatan Blows draws attention to the sad reality of how children are sold into slavery in contemporary Ghana, where parents also perceive this as a way of getting their offspring into a better environment. Then International Adoptions: A Global Scandal goes behind-the-scenes of the Western trend of adopting children from abroad. Their export is still primarily a profitable business for many countries, in which the rights of biological parents play no role and adulthood is marked by a painful search for one’s own identity.
