Dziecko z pyłu / Child of Dust / Kinder des Staubs

PL/VN/CH/CZ/QA 2025, 93 mins, ori­gi­nal ver­si­on with German and English sub­tit­les, Dir/Screenplay: Weronika Mliczewska / Cinematography: Mikael Lypinski / Editing: Marcin Sucharski, Mateusz Romaszkan / Music: Joaquin Garcia

Sang is a ‘dust child’ – he has a Vietnamese mother and an American father who left the coun­try after the end of the Vietnam War and has been miss­ing ever sin­ce. As a fat­her­less child of mixed eth­nic heri­ta­ge, this slum dwel­ler and illi­te­ra­te man has felt mar­gi­na­li­sed all his life and has always lived in pre­ca­rious cir­cum­s­tances. But he has not given up the fight for a life of digni­ty – whe­ther by start­ing a fami­ly or by sear­ching for his father. And even in a docu­men­ta­ry, mira­cles some­ti­mes hap­pen: a DNA test leads Sang to his father, who­se child­ren in the US had pre­vious­ly known not­hing of their brot­her in Vietnam. Crossing all cul­tu­ral and lin­gu­i­stic boun­da­ries, they make cont­act and soon embark on a joint pro­ject: to bring Sang to the United States so that he can be clo­se to his second fami­ly and, even­tual­ly, bring his wife and daugh­ter over to join him. With her first fea­ture-length film, Weronika Mliczewska has hers­elf achie­ved a small mira­cle. She gets asto­nis­hin­gly clo­se to her prot­ago­nists and uses her came­ra to docu­ment a blend of dra­ma, crime thril­ler and fami­ly tra­ge­dy, brim­ming with extra­or­di­na­ry sce­nes and sur­pri­sing twists. In doing so, she tack­les ques­ti­ons of home, social struc­tu­re, guilt, respon­si­bi­li­ty and ato­ne­ment at a breathl­ess pace.
[Rainer Mende]

13 September / 3:00pm / fsk Kino / Guest: Weronika Mliczewska
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