The Pool or Death of a Goldfish
Poland2025animated14'Short Film CompetitionNational Competition
A leg, arm and belly – piece by piece, the parents are eating their daughter for dinner. This macabre scene is an invitation to a metaphorical animation about growing up, the right to have one’s own opinion and family relationships. For years, the protagonist has lived like a goldfish – she fulfils her parents’ wishes, does not express her own needs, adapts and gives up on herself. However, her accumulated emotions begin to overwhelm her like water in a swimming pool and doubts arise in her mind. Should she drown in her own tears and unexpressed emotions, or kill the goldfish within herself and try to regain her freedom?
- directed by
- Daria Kopiec
Film and theatre director. A graduate of the Directing Department at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw and the Cinematography Department at the Łódź Film School, with a specialization in Animation and Visual Effects. She also completed an internship at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels – La Cambre in Brussels. Member of the Polish Filmmakers Association. Participant of the Berlinale Talents program in 2017. She has created internationally acclaimed animated films such as Cosmos (2016, Annecy – main competition) and Own Trash (2019, Austin, SXSW – Special Mention). She gained recognition in the theatre world with her play Lear’s Daughters, appreciated by audiences in many countries, as well as with the television theatre production The Case of Rita G. (2018), which won the Grand Prix at the TEATROTEKA FEST. She recently completed the clay animation 'The Pool or the Death of the Goldfish' and live-action short 'It’s All Because of Her'.
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