Anna Zamecka

Spring 2020, Poland. 16 filmmakers create 14 short films about unexpected experience of isolation caused by pandemic.

When adults are ineffectual, children have to grow up quickly. Ola is 14 and she takes care of her dysfunctional father, autistic brother and a mother who lives apart from them and is mainly heard the phone. Most of all she wants to reunite a family that simply doesn’t work — like a defective TV set. She lives in the hope of bringing her mother back home. Her 13 year old brother Nikodem’s Holy Communion is a pretext for the family to meet up. Ola is entirely responsible for preparing the perfect family celebration. “Communion” reveals the beauty of the rejected, the strength of the weak and the need for change when change seems impossible. This crash course in growing up teaches us that failure is not final. Especially when love is in question.

The film presents eight different stories about love - each seen from a different point of view. Starting with the biological approach, where love is understood as a result of a chemical reaction, through the love that parents give to their children, siblings to each other, to the sympathy of two people - first infatuation, and with time a mature and stable bond. The picture does not idealize love, however. It also touches on the problems of betrayal and loneliness in the modern world.