Oscar® Candidate | Award-Winning Short Film About a Little Girl, a Yellow Crayon, and the War00:16:34

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In a war-torn country, five-year-old Danuta lives with her mother and family in constant fear. One evening, a simple game of hide-and-seek is interrupted by soldiers pounding at their door. As chaos erupts, Danuta clings to her drawings, finding fragile peace in a sunflower sketched with her yellow crayon. When the soldiers leave, her grandfather lies dead.

Seeking safety, the family finds refuge in a nearby church. As danger closes in, Danuta speaks to her grandfathers spirit through a sunflower a fragile promise of hope amid the ruins.

Oscar® Candidate | Award-Winning Short Film
English subtitles available

Director: Mateusz Balcerek
Country: USA & Poland
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 16 min

Directors Statement: 2024 marked the 80th anniversary of an event that profoundly influenced my family, particularly the life of my grandmother Danuta Gorecka. Her vivid recollections of hiding under her bed as a 4-year-old child, paralyzed by fear, while three bullets claimed her grandfathers life, continually echo in my mind. Sunflower is a cinematic exploration of the war seen through the innocent eyes of a child. This child, armed with nothing but imagination, attempts to navigate and comprehend the world around her. Through the symbolic use of a sunflower, representing life, and the game of hide-and-seek, she is gently introduced by her family to the grim and violent shadows of war. Although so distant for many of us, this story is very much applicable to the world of today, especially in Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine where families are being forced to face terror and violence every day.

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Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, Polish, Hindi

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