Synopsis
Silent Trees introduces us to Runa, a 16-year-old Kurdish refugee and her family who have been stranded in an icy forest in the Belarusian-Polish border, denied entry into either country. Runa is forced into responsibilities beyond her years, caring for her younger brothers and being a support for her father after her pregnant mother dies due to the harsh conditions. Eventually placed in a Polish refugee camp, the family grapples with the trauma of their loss while struggling to adapt to a new life in a new country.
While her father desperately tries to find work to feed and care for his family while hampered by language barriers and other seemingly insurmountable hurdles, Runa finds comfort in drawing, which the film morphs into animated sequences that capture her dreams and nightmares. Silent Trees is a remarkable coming-of-age story and harrowing journey of one family among countless others fighting to survive and keep the hope of a better future despite the daily horrors of the global refugee crisis.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower recently interviewed writer/director Agnieszka Zwiefka about her gripping new coming-of-age documentary Silent Trees. The film had its US premiere at the 2025 Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles on February 21, 2025.
Lightly edited for content and clarity.
Glen Dower:
Welcome to Cinema Scholars Agnieszka, I am very excited to talk about your documentary as it arrives at Slamdance. Silent Trees tells us the story of Runa and her family. Of course, at the time of filming, Runa is 16 years old, she is a Kurd girl looking after her father and four brothers as they travel, trying to get through various Polish bureaucracies just so they can settle and build a new life for themselves. How did you come across Runa initially, and then wish to tell her story?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
I was a volunteer in the forest on the eastern frontier of the European Union because when this crisis started to happen at our doorstep, Poland was the farthest eastern-based country of the European Union. I suddenly realized that we had to tell this story. It was so evil. People were trapped actually in between two countries in a freezing forest. And parts of this forest have not even been entered by scientists. You know, it’s the largest forest in Europe. There are still some zones that we have no access to. So I went there as a volunteer and I’ve been doing a lot of work. I’ve been meeting a lot of families.
And then I realized I had to tell this story as a filmmaker. This is how I can serve it best. And I learned very quickly that the biggest victims of a refugee crisis, whether it’s Europe or the U.S., are teenagers because the kids are somehow taken care of. The adults can depend on themselves, although they are still victims. But the teenagers are the most fragile. They are somewhere in between adulthood and childhood. And I wanted to show this refugee crisis through the eyes of a teenage girl. Runa came to the refugee camp with her family. I was already there. So I met her on the first day when they arrived. And on the first day, I started to film. Not knowing if her mother will be alive or if she will die, what will happen in her life?
Glen Dower:
And it’s called Silent Trees because we spend so much time in that forest, the frozen forest. And you feel the cold. And you collected footage from so many different angles as well. Why did you concentrate so much time here and patiently spend time in the trees, focusing on abandoned toys, etc.? I’ve always found the sight of a little lost shoe to be the saddest thing you could ever see. How did you pick up those moments and choose to include them the way you did?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
There are plenty of opportunities. The forest is full of clothes abandoned by people, photographs, family albums, and broken phones. Everything is there. And I felt that the forest was a silent witness to the horror that was going on there. So it became a metaphor about how the mind of my protagonist, Runa works. They have left the forest. They have survived. They can start a new life in Europe. But the forest never left them. Even nowadays, Runa goes to a very good school, a very prestigious school, and she is a straight-A student, but she never crosses the park. She chooses the route around because she is so terrified at the mere sight of the trees. So, yeah, hence the trees in our film as a kind of an echo in her head as a nightmare that keeps hunting you.
Glen Dower:
If those trees could tell a story. We have intermittent animation as well, which is very beautiful, done by Yellow Tapper Films. Why did you choose to use that medium as well as the film footage?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
Because I very quickly realized that whenever something really bad was happening in Runa’s life, she just cut herself off and started drawing. So, on the day her mother died, she was drawing. On the day they got a deportation notice, she was drawing. She was always drawing when something horrible was happening, this was her escape. So, we used her drawings actually, and she had this very thick sketchbook given to her by one of the girls who was also a refugee, and this girl was a Syrian animation film director. Can you imagine? It’s not only simple people, it’s filmmakers who are also going through this refugee drama.
And Tarwat, this Syrian filmmaker, became a good friend of mine, and she shared her sketchbook with Runa. So, Runa kept filling it with haunting images, and we gave the whole sketchbook to the animation studio. So, all the animated sequences are based on her drawings, and together with Runa, I scripted the scenes based on her nightmares.
Glen Dower:
Yes, so many of the animations are her being grabbed, taken away, or pulled away. It must have been therapeutic for her as well. But the sequences have their beauty as well as being heartbreaking. But how involved were you with Runa and the family overall whilst filming?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
A lot. I mean, it’s always like a very fragile border. I tried not to intervene too much, not to change the reality, because we needed to show the reality. But of course, there were moments when we were just putting the cameras away and hugging the boys, or just crying together with them. And our presence, the constant presence of cameras also helps them not to get deported, because no one wants to be the bad guy in front of cameras, and our film was made for HBO. So, you know, you don’t want to have an enemy in HBO. But I’m going into fiction next, because this one was too much for me, especially since I have daughters the age of Runa. So that was for me as a mother, very intense to live through.
Glen Dower:
Yes, as a parent, you can’t help but put yourself in those shoes. But we’re here because we’re also talking about Slamdance. You’ve made it! What are you most looking forward to and what have been your previous festival experiences?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
We’ve been already to the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, and we had our world premiere at CPH: DOX in Denmark. I think we were on all continents, except for the U.S. So this is our American premiere! And I’m very excited about it. Because I think that nowadays, with the new government, the story is something that needs to be told. Because it’s not only about Europe, it’s worldwide.
The same situations happen on the Mexican-U.S. border. And the same teenage girls have to grow up in a second. It’s a story about growing up too soon, about being forced to grow up by global politics. Runa’s life was shaped by ISIS, by Putin and his vision of creating chaos on the Eastern European border and bringing refugees into the forest, by the war in Ukraine, by so many factors that she has no influence over.
Glen Dower:
So is there a message you want audiences to take away? What would be your perfect outcome for people?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
Yeah, we are trying to show this film in the European Parliament. Because of course, we want people to start thinking because it’s easy to turn yourself away from these problems. They are not our problems. We are privileged. We live in a better world. Why should we care? And if you just give people statistics and data about the refugee crisis, they don’t care. Nothing changes in their hearts. But I see already, after so many screenings, that people cry out loud during the screening.
There is this little crack maybe inside them. And this crack is good enough for me to open a debate. I’m not naive. I know that probably not everyone will call their MP or start to campaign to treat the refugees more humanely. But at least it will make them think and see a human.
Glen Dower:
And you’re still in touch with Runa I imagine? How is she doing?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
We are in touch every week. They became a part of my life. They’re doing okay. The father even started to work finally, thank God. And Runa is going to finish high school in one year and she’s still planning to become a lawyer. I think this would be the most amazing epilogue of this film I can think of because she’s an amazingly good student, straight A’s.
Glen Dower:
And what have you got lined up for after Slamdance? What can we look forward to from you?
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
I’ll be going to the International Dublin Film Festival, a festival in Riga, Vienna, in London, all of this in four weeks. I am close to going mad, but still alive!
Glen Dower:
And spreading Runa’s story. Agnieszka, it’s been a real pleasure. Thank you so much for your time and the best of luck at Slamdance and beyond.
Agnieszka Zwiefka:
Thank you so much, Glen.
