Refining Fires

Refining Fires

In the isolated Polish countryside of the 1950s, teenage Jadzia lives with her fanatically religious mother in the shadow of a long-past tragedy. The fire that claimed her father’s life permanently scarred Jadzia’s body and left her mother trapped in unresolved grief and guilt.

Jadzia grows up in a suffocating atmosphere with no escape. Her only attempt at accepting her own body comes through nocturnal charcoal sketches. She tries to tame her trauma and reclaim even the smallest sense of self-worth. To her mother, these acts are signs of sin and disobedience.

When Jadzia is stripped of her only refuge, she begins to project her inner turmoil onto the house and the religious images. Searching for purification, she drifts along a dangerous line between waking life and nightmare. An act of open defiance is born – one that will forever alter their relationship.