Slamdance Film Festival 2025 – Too often, the actual human narrative about immigration gets left out of headlines and constant political debates about the refugee crisis. Writer/director Agnieszka Zwiefka‘s Silent Trees aims to change that by focusing on a Kurdish family that flees to Poland, all while losing their mother in a snowy forest between the Poland-Belarus border. This makes for a harrowing and heart-wrenching account, enhanced by black and white animation that’s the stuff of nightmares.

Though the film follows a family, 16-year-old Runa Husni is the real star. She cares for her trio of younger brothers and in some ways, her father. The documentary begins just as the family arrives at the Polish border. Like the other refugees, they hope that they won’t be turned away and will be granted asylum. That’s no guarantee, however, since Poland, like several other European countries, has an immigration crisis that’s draining resources and leading to a resurgence of far-right political parties. The opening minutes feature shaky footage and sounds of refugees begging asylum, underscoring the perilous and uncertain circumstances.

Runa’s family does land in Poland and then deals with the aftermath of the mother’s loss, their profound grief, and learning to adjust to an unfamiliar culture. There are frequent clips of Runa attempting to learn Polish and struggling in her classes because she can’t understand the language. Yet, her determination and will ensure that she does indeed learn the language. She even attempts to teach her brothers and father basic phrases so they can at least get by. Meanwhile, the dad struggles to land a job. In one of the most heartbreaking sequences, he applies for a job cutting hair. He essentially does a demo, cuts a guy’s neck, and doesn’t properly trim his beard. In short, you really, really feel for this family and how difficult it is for them to adjust and make a new life, especially after the devastating loss of the matriarch. Meanwhile, part of the film occurs just as Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, further exacerbating Europe’s refugee crisis and slowing the asylum process even more. The question of whether or not the Kurdish family will be granted asylum looms over the documentary, until its conclusion.

Zwiefka frequently showcases Runa’s anxieties through chilling black and white animation. The forest, which took her mother, transforms into a monster, a beast that snatches and disappears immigrants. Even the slow-moving and powerful bureaucracy of the immigration process becomes part of the haunting animation sequences. Runa’s anxieties manifest into these spine-tingling sequences, and they’re quite effective in showing how much this teenager endures mentally. She’s really the only one keeping her family together, a task that no teen should shoulder.

Though the documentary underscores plenty of the hardships, there are moments of joy, including Runa’s birthday party and other loving moments between the family members. Despite everything, they still exist and continue to live, taking everything day by day. Silent Trees is a powerful, moving, and timely documentary about the global refugee crisis. It humanizes the immigration story by focusing on a 16-year-old and her Kurdish family. Right now, these are stories that we need to hear.