Schlingel Portrais the Youth World in Contemporary Times

How families and their children are represented in cinema

A social cross-section of family structures emerges from the latest edition of Schlingel film review (September 27 – October 4, 2025), the international festival dedicated to children and juniors, featuring many young protagonists who also serve on the various juries: a forgotten and self-educating childhood, families with separated or absent parents, single-parent nuclei seeking for stability in expanding. Indeed, many films in the various sections of the 30th edition of the Festival in Saxony present dysfunctional families, fully organized families, albeit in difficulty, or those who find their balance as the story unfolds, with absent, remarried, or missing mothers or fathers. In the films competing at Schlingel, this world of children and young people appears alone in navigating their own journey of growth and self-determination.

In Brightly Shining by Ida Sagmo Tvedte (Stargate – En Julefortelling, Norway, 2025), winner of the 2025 Fipresci Prize, there is only one father, whom the young protagonist cares deeply for, dreaming of living in a place in the wood where the family can function, but he is an alcoholic and unable to meet family responsibilities, not even work.

In Fränk by Tõnis Pill (Estonia, 2025), Paul is abandoned by his mother, a neurotic woman dominated by her abusive husband, at his uncle’s house. When the mother returns, she has not been able to free herself from her partner, to whom she is viciously submissive. The boy has no choice but to stay with his uncle and face the difficulties of a turbulent adolescence and the climb into adulthood.

In My Stepmom is a Witch by Joëlle Desjardins Paquette (Ma belle mère est une sorcière, Canada, 2025), the two parents are separating, but the story’s magical touch will allow the young protagonist Margot to find affection in her stepmother, despite her initial witchy tricks to win her father’s heart.

In The Children of Silver Street – Take a Stand by Mehdi Avaz (Børnene fra Sølvgade, Denmark, 2024), the four siblings Katinka, Tristan, Kirk, and Petra find a home with Miss Nelly and her partner Brian, but are reclaimed by their grandparents, who will figure out what’s best for their young grandchildren.

In Twinkle Twinkle Little Elephant by Meikeminne Clinckspoor (Olifantje in het bos, Netherlands, Belgium, 2025), the two sisters aren’t daughters of the same father and are very different from each other. Despite this, they manage to find their lost elephant ears and return alone to their grandmother’s birthday party.

In Sugar Candy by Pavel Jandourek (Cukrkandl, Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2025), it’s precisely a group of children who become protagonists in the rebirth of a dental practice where the dentist is a woman, even though it’s the late 1700s. This film also features a motherless family where the father is considering marriage: a wealthy woman is looking for a husband, but the widower falls in love with the new, in career dentist.

In Elvis Star by Boris Jurjaševič (Elvis Škorc, Slovenia, 2025), the two parents are separated and the mother is having an affair with her son’s chemistry teacher, who enters him in a competition for chemists because of his great talents in the field. Thanks to his comparison with his father, Elvis will find the will to succeed, the self-confidence, and the acceptance of the new life of an extended family.

In Bird Boy by Joel Soisson (South Africa, USA, 2025), August has lost his mother and nothing is known about his father, so he must move again; he is entrusted to his uncle and his wife, whom he doesn’t know, on a South African ranch outside the city. He will become a hero when he understands why he was brought into the world: after all, he was born into one family but found another, after the misadventures, including legal ones, that his ostrich ‘friend’ had brought upon them.

In Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave by Bernd Sahlinh (Ab morgen bin ich mutig, Germany, 2025), parents are absent: there’s no news of their father, their mother is constantly busy with work, and so the two siblings go on but Karl, the younger one, who does well at school, experiences what can happen to a twelve-year-old: shyly falling in love and competing with his own brother.

Seeds by Eliana Niño Oviedo (Semillas, Colombia, Spain, 2024) presents the story of two siblings, Shaira and Andrey, who live on a ranch alone with their elderly grandfather. Before a coleo, a rodeo-like tournament, Andrey tragically loses his life after falling from his horse, and his grandfather sells the animal to pay off his debts. Little Shaira goes in search of special seeds to perform two miracles: make it rain and bring his faithful horse home.

Twelve-year-old Aimei, in Football on the Roof (Wu ding zu qiu, China, 2024) lives with her older sister in a village but does not know where her mother is; only football and international competitions will make her relive the anticipation of meeting her mother.

Chemnitz 2025 has transformed itself into a big screen, presenting the latest international productions to an audience also made up of those Chemnitz students who are the main protagonists in every family’s story.

Michela Manente
©FIPRESCI 2025