2022 ‘Будинок зі скалок’ Directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont
A temporary house for abandoned children near the front line in eastern Ukraine is run by a small group of social workers determined to provide comfort and safety. It may be humble and somewhat run-down, but this house is filled with love and offers up to nine months of refuge to kids whose fate will be determined by the system. During this short time, the caretakers try to nurture within them a sense of stability and normalcy.
Monica Hellström Sami Jahnukainen Darya Bassel Viktoriia Khomenko Tobias Jansson Oleksandra Kravchenko
Māja no šķembām, Éclats d'enfance, Heimweh - Kindheit zwischen den Fronten, 碎片之家, Et hus af splinter, Una casa hecha de astillas, Éclats d’enfance , Otthon a romokon, 파편들의 집, Dağılan Evin Çocukları
As an oldest sibling, this hit like a truck. My eyes burn, my heart breaks. I am unwell.
Oscar Gauntlet: #48/54
In war torn Eastern Ukraine just a few miles from the front lines, lies this temporary house for abandoned children, runaways and otherwise neglected kids. The caretakers work to provide some kind of stability, beg for their parents to step up and take back responsibility of these children that more than anything else, just desire a home. It’s devastating watching young children essentially try to parent their parents, having to ask “Have you been drinking?”; seeing the disappointment when the parent answers, “I had one beer.” This is a perpetually heartbreaking watch, but it’s absolutely worth checking out.
Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Unknown
A heartbreaking documentary about neglected children at a temporary shelter, desperate for parental love even when their parents treat them horribly. The non-obvious yet devastating effects of war on families and future generations are on display here in a simple and very effective way. And to think that this was filmed before February 2022 is even more horrifying, as you imagine how many more children like this exist because of the full-scale invasion. How thousands were forcefully taken to Russia and put into re-education camps. Even when there is a glimmer of hope for some in this documentary, when the educators manage to do what they can to comfort the kids and correct the course of their broken childhood, more…
brimming with patience in front of & behind the camera. doing everything you can even when you know it’s not enough. feels like there was only room for honesty, no matter how big, ugly, complicated. truth does not always heal but it is what we deserve nonetheless.
Honestly, the most unbearable documentary from Oscars so far.
It's not strong enough to keep you focused on the screen, and despite it's very short length, it feels like a nightmare to pass the time.
Also, I can't connect with these documentaries that have some unbelievable scenes. I find it hard to believe that those kids were actually smoking, hidden inside a tight space with a huge camera watching them.
A House Made of Splinters is that typical Academy protocol nomination involving some relevant sociopolitical fact.
"Only a few cases actually get resolved" -Case Worker,
- 2022 Ranked: boxd.it/eWNQo
- Sundance 2022: boxd.it/f5MjG
Watching kids in sad situations makes me sad even when happy stuff happens.
“Yes, we can take one more child.”
Raw and sorrowful and blunt in what it attempts to show us but what else would you expect from a documentary like this? Especially when the focus remains so steadily trained on the children rather than the adults running the shelter.
Wept almost nonstop. There is nothing that hurts quite like innocent babies saying with the utmost certainty that their parents don’t want them.
"I see... you'll have a bad time, girl. A very bad time.
You'll marry & start working.
I see that you will drink heavily. Your kids will live in an orphanage.
I see your life ending badly. You'll be homeless.
That's all. That's your future.
I see nothing more."
This quote comes from the only scene in this soul-crushing documentary that I could barely relate to something from my own childhood: sleepover fortune telling. My friends & I often conducted this ritual over a pen&paper game we called MASH IT UP (bc my friends & I existed before Al Gore invented the internet), & even the WORST collection of cosmic consequences that the game served up...might sound like wishful make-believe of a life too…
Incomplete; observational; quiet; sad; short; timely; understated; underwhelming.
A chronicle of lost childhoods and an emotive portrait of the wider effects. This focuses us on specific collateral impacts of war, and of general displacement. It is very important for that. Though it is not a great documentary, hurt by a lack of focus beyond revealing life in this orphanage and the amazing work done here, it still has a necessity.
There are times where watching feels invasive. These are just lives on screen and the urge to document should sometimes be matched by reflection, or a clear intrusion. The poetic and more filmic moments help this. Most of the film, though, is just the observational: fly on the wall footage. It is illustrative and impactful, vital maybe. There…
this is heartbreaking and essential to watch. there are so many things that are out in the world which we are so ignorant towards or do not have the closest idea of what they are like. documentaries like these help us see so many things up-close which are extremely tough and humane. in this case, seeing these kids act the way they do and how they interact with each other and their environment through loss and grief is extremely powerful to say the least. it is expertly made and presented, but that is far from being the focus here. never would i have imagined some of the stuff that i saw here in these situations, but they happen. especially in…
☆"When one child leaves, another one arrives."☆
Finally available for a larger audience to view after a curious release strategy and zero promotional materials sent to various guilds, the Academy Award- and Independent Spirit Award-nominated documentary from Simon Lereng Wilmont earned its accolades and is a fine film but prospective viewers may expect something different from this feature about a war-torn Eastern Ukraine. Будинок зі скалок ["A House Made of Splinters"] is timely for sure with respect to the director's focus on conflict though if you're looking for a documentary on the Russian invasion into their western neighbor this isn't exactly that.
That's because the story we see in this work of resilience and hope is made entirely before 2022,…
