STRANGE HEAVEN
Obce Niebo
WINNER
Main Prize - BAP CINE, Buenos Aires – 2016
Golden Lion for Best Actress - Gdynia Film Festival – 2016
Main Prize (Feature Film) - Off Camera International Festival Of Independent Cinema, Cracow - 2016
Best Actress - Off Camera International Festival Of Independent Cinema, Cracow -2016
drama, thriller I 2015 I Poland
Original Title: OBCE NIEBO
Duration: 107 min
Language: English, Polish and Swedish with
English subtitles
Director: Dariusz Gajewski
Writer: Dariusz Gajewski, Michał Godzic
Cast: Agnieszka Grochowska, Bartłomiej Topa,
Barbara Kubiak, Ewa Fröling, Jan Englert,
Tanja Lorentzon, Gerhard Hoberstorfer, Magdalena Boczarska
STRANGE HEAVEN
A touching story based on true events that explores how an innocent lie and a misunderstanding can lead to dramatic outcomes and state imposed separation of a child from its loving parents.
Polish immigrants, Basia (Agnieszka Grochowska) and Marek (Bartłomiej Topa) move to Sweden with their nine-year-old daughter Ula. They rent an apartment in an immigrant district and do their best to adapt to their new homeland. Marek is coaching a female football team, while Basia takes care of the house and earns some money as a masseuse.
When a Swedish social worker (Ewa Fröling) visits their home to check on Ula’s everyday life an innocent lie triggers a family drama.
Before they know, the misunderstanding leads to Ula being taken away from her parents by social services and placed in foster care. Speaking no Swedish and a little bit English, Basia and Marek are forced to face a bureaucratic machine and ruthless Swedish regulations. Feeling powerless and increasingly desperate, the parents undertake a dramatic fight to get their daughter back.
Based on true events, the film gathered universal praise all over Europe and became one of the top hits on HBO Europe.