Zuza Banasinska / Netherlands, Poland / 23’ / 2024

Created from archival materials of the Educational Film Studio in Łódź, the film tells the story of a matriarchal family through the eyes of a little girl grappling with the reproduction of ideological and representational systems. Originally created as an educational and propaganda tool in communist Poland, the film is repurposed as a site of self-fictional memory, its scientific register shifted to a treatment of the images themselves as exemplars. The classic Slavic witch figure, Baba Yaga, is reimagined as a prehistoric goddess from the age of matriarchy. This transformation provokes layered reflections on kinship and identity as the child navigates binary gender roles. The women of the family find a home in the archive, engaging in a process of self and world-making that transforms often sexist and anthropocentric images into tools of freedom and resistance.

Directed by Zuza Banasińska
Written by Zuza Banasińska
Editing Zuza Banasińska
Sound Recording: Zuza Banasińska
Sound Editing Zuza Banasińska, Constanza Castagnet
Music by Martyna Basta, Julek Tarasiuk
Special Effects by Zuza Banasińska
Produced by Zuza Banasińska
Coproduction Wytwórnia Filmów Oświatowych w Łodzi (Educational Film Studio in Łódź)

Zuza Banasińska
Zuza Banasińska is an artist and director from Warsaw, currently living in Amsterdam. In their essay films and installations, they use archives to examine how the reproduction of images enables the reproduction of systems, subjects and bodies. They studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, the University of the Arts in Berlin and the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Their latest film, Grandmamauntsistercat, premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2024 and at the 74th Berlinale, where it received the Teddy Award for Best Short Film. It was screened at more than 70 film festivals, including the New York Film Festival and Visions du Réel, winning 13 awards, most recently at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montréal. It was also nominated for the European Short Film Awards and the Doc Alliance Award.