Reflective Encounters

“When leaving your home behind, there will be ties that pull you back. A patterned foulard, a few local delicacies carefully packed and stashed away into your suitcase, fond memories and – why not? – your pet hen. In Ewa Smyk’s Homebird, we follow a young artist trying to make a splash in the big city. At first, she rides on a wave of adrenaline, which makes a cramped apartment with a faulty doorknob and a mattress that has seen better days just a couple of inconspicuous little details. Outside, there’s a world full of possibilities. She only needs to step out and seize them.

Soon, Homebird reveals its true colours. The nostalgia-laden film not only understands and draws from the symbiotic relationship between urban and rural areas exacerbated by capitalism, but it also gestures towards a wider discourse about individuality within a society that values mechanical reproduction. In this way, the bucolic places of the artist’s childhood – and the smiling, reassuring faces of the villagers – become at once her mark of shame and her vital source of inspiration. However, it takes courage to embrace one’s origins but, in doing so, we ultimately find meaning.”

— Ren Scateni