BLOCK 1. Interrupted Childhood
Set of films
92 min
- duration: 14 min
- country/year: Poland/2026
- director: Krzysztof Tomaszewski
- cinematography: Stefan Żółtowski
- editor: Krzysztof Tomaszewski
- production: Agata Golańska / Szkoła Filmowa w Łodzi / The Polish National Film School in Lodz
- selected festivals and awards: 2026 - MDAG: World Premiere
>>> A film to watch in Block 1. Interrupted Childhood
Mentor is a young boxer training in Warsaw’s Praga district, entirely devoted to his craft. Reserved and disciplined, he lives in silence, focus, and restraint. He treats training as ritual,and humility and modesty as a personal code. At every competition, he is accompanied by his father and a rosary. He moves among people and through the ring, yet in truth inhabits a closed, private world where daily life is structured around drills and prayer, and his inner thoughts remain out of reach. Within Warsaw’s boxing community, he has earned respect through diligence and numerous victories. Still, his air of mystery fuels speculation among teammates. They begin to question who he really is, but his silence offers no answers. The moment approaches when their assumptions will finally collide with reality.
- duration: 36 min
- country/year: Poland/2026
- director: Agata Schultz
- cinematography: Michał Gruszczyński, Kacper Lisowski, Filip Drożdż
- editor: Agata Schultz
- production: Iwona Harris / Lollipop Films
- selected festivals and awards: 2026 - MDAG: World Premiere
>>> A film to watch in Block 1. Interrupted Childhood
A story of young players from Poland’s Homeless National Team, trying to get back up after losing their way. Each walked a different path. Their homelessness didn’t always mean sleeping on the street. Sheep, the captain of the men’s team, spent years hiding behind a persona - symbolized by the masks tattooed on his neck. Today, in sobriety, he is slowly learning to take them off. Justyna, the women’s goalkeeper, unexpectedly must step in for an injured teammate in crucial matches. Struggling with self-acceptance, she must stop chasing perfection. Guiding them through these inner battles is the Devil - once addicted and homeless himself. He arrived at a recovery center as an aircraft mechanic, ”the bolt guy”. Today he’s a psychotherapist and mental coach. Together they enter an international tournament. As they face teams from around the world and tension mounts, they will face one question: what is this game really about.
- duration: 30 min
- country/year: France, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan/2025
- director: Mohammed Alshareef
- cinematography: Mohammed Alshareef
- editor: Denis Le Paven, Pauline Eon, Mohammed Nagee
- production: Laura Nikolov / Coorigines Production
- selected festivals and awards: 2026 - Clermont-Ferrand ISFF
>>> A film to watch in Block 1. Interrupted Childhood
A teenager breaks the siege of Gaza to save his family from starvation, facing arrest, the horrors of war, and forced separation, all the while dreaming of returning home and rebuilding his shattered life.
- duration: 12 min
- country/year: Poland/2026
- director: Mieszko Chomka
- cinematography: Zofia Sobczyk
- editor: Wiktoria Szczepanek
- production: Agata Golańska / Szkoła Filmowa w Łodzi / The Polish National Film School in Lodz
- selected festivals and awards: 2026 - MDAG: World Premiere
>>> A film to watch in Block 1. Interrupted Childhood
A summer day. In the middle of a rollerblading ride, you stop by a building long out of use. You don’t come there to swim - there’s no water in the pool. You bring your friend. Besides, neither of you can swim. You’re too young. Details from your favorite amusement park begin to return to you - or perhaps even come back to life. But what if the pool were filled with imagined water? If you can imagine even a pool full of water, you can imagine much more. Your favorite roller coaster in Kyiv. The largest park in Kharkiv. Your grandmother who lives just outside the city. Your room. To enter it, you have to open a door that only you and your friend can see. The games come back to life, too. The remembered ones blend with those the drained pool has to offer. The slide’s pipe distorts the sound of your name - the same way a friend once called out to you from the other end of a carousel.In this imagined water, you may have your head in the clouds more than you swim, but you begin to feel the way you once did at home.
- duration: 30 min
- country/year: USA/2025
- director: Hilla Medalia
- cinematography: Avner Shahaf
- editor: Erez Laufer
- production: Sheila Nevins, Yael Melamede, Hilla Medalia / Medalia Productions
- selected festivals and awards: 2026 - Oscar® nomination: Best Documentary Short Film
>>> A film to watch in Block 1. Interrupted Childhood
In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed in Israeli attacks.
- Mentor
- Mentor
- dir. Krzysztof Tomaszewski, Poland 2026, 14 min
- Everything I Play For
- Wszystko o co gram
- dir. Agata Schultz, Poland 2026, 36 min
- Hassan
- Hassan
- dir. Mohammed Alshareef, France, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan 2025, 30 min
- Heads in the Clouds
- Bujając w obłokach
- dir. Mieszko Chomka, Poland 2026, 12 min
- Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
- Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
- dir. Hilla Medalia, USA 2025, 30 min
