House in a Bottle
"In Poland, people drink, have drunk, and - if nothing changes - will continue to drink. Alcoholism appears in complete families, incomplete ones, wealthy and poor, intellectual, working-class. We wanted democracy? Here we have it.
One and a half million Polish children are raised in families with alcohol problems.
What about those who grew up and still carry this experience?" - ask the authors of the reportage that became an inspiration to make a film about an experience that is very personal, yet terrifyingly common. How do Adult Children of Alcoholics build relationships with themselves and the world? How do they cope with shame suppressed for years, the need for control, loneliness, fear of intimacy? Today, they still play roles they were trained for in the past: they are Heroes, Scapegoats, Peacemakers, Mascots, or Invisible Children. Therefore, House in a Bottle
is a sober film. By design, its topics are neither alcoholics nor alcohol. We are interested in adults stuck in roles that once helped them survive but today prevent them from living. The film starts with a portrait of the director’s relationship with her brother with whom she never talked about their childhood. But what does
the film bring that a book cannot? She therefore invited four friends to participate in the film and – inspired by the books characters - to share their stories. The film becomes an attempt to reconnect with the brother and make sense of the past and understand who they - a director and her friends - are today.