INDEPENDENT FILM FOR INDEPENDENT MINDS

Precocious six-year-old Stefek lives with his adored teenage sister Elka and his rarely seen, shop-bound mother in a sleepy post-communist town just outside Warsaw. With no friends of his own age, life for Stefak revolves around playing with his tin soldiers on the railway tracks, cadging motorbike rides from his sister's car mechanic boyfriend Jerzy, and attempting to discover the precise combination of factors that makes his neighbour's doves fly their coop on a given signal. One day, Stefek spots a commuter at the station changing trains whom he convinces himself is their estranged father. Although he abandoned his mother when Stefek was just a baby he is able to recognise him from a crumpled and almost completely defaced photograph he carries in his wallet. Though Elka reacts dismissively to his plans, Stefek aims to reunite his parents.