• Film Details
Born Dead

Born Dead


Robert is 24 years old and has been in jail since he was 15. He was once out on parole, but before long he was locked up again. In his 24 years of living, he hasn't had many chances to learn about life and society 'on the outside'. Robert has been marked, literally, by his years in prison; he's tattooed from head to toe. The words “born dead” are inscribed on the back of his head.
“Duet” is re-socialization program in Kraków, Poland that puts repeat offenders like Robert into contact with outsiders of a different sort. Robert becomes a caregiver in a home for mentally disabled children. There he learns what it's like to be accepted, and appreciated, just for being himself and for having the capacity to feel.

Documented over a a period of months, the relationship that develops between Robert and the children as they open up to each other is touching. You get the sense that it is also the caregiver who is being cared for.

The Neue Züricher Zeitung newspaper writes: “Jacek Blawut's unsentimental yet moving film, BORN DEAD (2003), bears witness to the fact that a home for mentally disabled children, of all places, can help successfully reintegrate criminal youth into society”.

Credits

Original Title: Born Dead
Language: Original version with English subtitles
Country of Origin: Poland
Year : 2004
Duration: 53 Min.
color
Director: Jacek Blawut
Script: Jacek Blawut
Camera: Jacek Blawut, Bartek Cichoński, Tomek Wolski
Editing: Jaroslaw Kamiński
Sound: Jan Freda, Krzysztof Wismont
Production: Produkcja Filmów, TVP - Televizji Polskiej S.A., Jacek Bławut
Festivals: 2004: IDFA Amsterdam (NL)
Awards: 2004 : Special Prize, International Documentary Film Festival, Guangzhou (China)



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About the Film

The director about his film:

“The way they touch is so beautiful, it gives birth to something new! While making this film I witnessed a person who had been sentenced to jail – the school of hard knocks – experience good feelings for the first time in eight years, the length of his sentence.  These were the best feelings he had had since he was 15 years old.  He had been starving for such feelings. He didn't know what was going to happen or where he was really headed when he decided to care for those who need it most. At first he was shocked and terrified. “God, how dramatic!” Born Dead

But with time,

as I got to know him, he started to feel better and better. The scene during the excursion to Kraków is a symphony of feelings, expressed best in the way they touch.”

Film Comment: