Fear

Poland2025fiction19'National Competition

Jola lives in Podlasie, close to the border with Belarus, in a house full of trinkets and surrounded by trees. Pope John Paul II and her late husband, who served in the Border Guard, look at her from the pictures on the walls. Marek, their son, followed in his father’s footsteps and spends his days combing the surrounding forests in search of immigrants crossing the border illegally. Jola is a taxi driver and wants to stay out of it, guided by the ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys’ approach. However, one day, when her car breaks down in the forest, she is forced to confront her own convictions.