Michał Bielawski
HOTSPOT A DOCUTHERAPY
A group struggling with climate-related depression begins therapy, turning inward to confront their fears and rediscover hope for themselves and the planet.
SYNOPSIS
“We are the climate crisis. We're living in it. This is what shapes us,” says Zbyszek while opening a therapeutic process that takes place in Lower Silesia over the course of several months during which we observe individual protagonists and find out what subjects they bring to the meetings. Michał Bielawski’s film is a documentary about the mutual relationship between humans and nature. It follows people grappling with their emotions, each marked differently by the climate crisis, intercut with sequences observing the impact humans have on the natural world. This distinctive, innovative mode of storytelling and layered structure are central to Bielawski’s cinematic language, seen for instance in the internationally acclaimed The Wind. A Documentary Thriller.
DIRECTOR
Michał Bielawski
PRODUCERS
Maciej Kubicki, Aleksandra Dur
PRODUCTION COMPANY Telemark
COUNTRY
Poland
Michał Bielawski
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Michał Bielawski is an award-winning Polish documentary filmmaker and recipient of scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture, the City of Warsaw, and the Goethe-Institut. His feature debut, Mundial: The Highest Stakes, won several awards. He later directed 1989 and The Wind. A Documentary Thriller, which premiered at Visions du Réel and received an Eagle nomination. His recent films include the series 1992: The Great Game and Passenger Andrzej Munk. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Polish Film Academy, the Polish Filmmakers Association, and the Polish Documentary Directors Guild.
The film follows people experiencing anxiety, depression and helplessness in response to the climate crisis as they begin a therapeutic process. Rather than frightening viewers with visions of future catastrophe, it focuses on the emotional consequences of climate change and the possibility of rebuilding hope. A miner, a climate activist and other participants bring contrasting experiences and beliefs into the group. The film treats each perspective with equal respect, asking whether people divided by age, background and worldview can truly listen to one another. This is not simply a record of a workshop, but a character-driven story with its own emotional arc. At its heart is a shared question: can people release the burden of fear, overcome social divisions and find common ground in facing an uncertain future together?
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Maciej Kubicki
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Maciej Kubicki is a film and TV producer and writer. Maciej runs the Warsaw-based boutique production company TELEMARK, where he produces creative documentaries, premium TV drama, and indie/arthouse features. He is an International Emmy winner for the creative documentaries Pianoforte (2024) and Kubrick by Kubrick (2020). He was awarded Emerging Producer of 2017 at the Jihlava Film Festival. He has been nominated four times for the Polish Film Award Eagle, winning once for Pianoforte. Maciej is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy Television Academy), the European Film Academy, and the Polish Film Academy.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
Our previous collaboration with Michał Bielawski on The Wind. A Documentary Thriller was both creatively fulfilling and highly successful, resulting in an internationally recognised film that premiered at Visions du Réel and received numerous awards. The new project addresses an urgent and increasingly relevant subject. By observing a group therapy process, it approaches the climate crisis through deeply personal stories rather than statistics or abstract warnings. The therapeutic setting reveals the protagonists’ fears, contradictions, and need for connection, allowing the audience to encounter them from an intimate and deeply human perspective. We believe this intimate perspective can make a global issue emotionally accessible and create space for empathy, dialogue, and hope. We are now looking for partners who share our belief in the film and can help us complete it through financial investment and strategic support.
Aleksandra Dur
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Aleksandra Dur spent ten years in performance marketing before moving into film production, developing impactful campaigns focused on audience engagement and measurable results. After completing postgraduate studies at the Łódź Film School, she began a new chapter in her career in film production, working closely with producer Maciej Kubicki and developing her experience in creative documentary filmmaking.
Production company profile
Telemark is a boutique company based in Warsaw, focusing on creative documentaries, premium television dramas, and art-house feature films. A member of the Polish Film Producer’s Chamber, KIPa, Telemark is managed by Maciej Kubicki and Anna Kępińska and seeks to develop and produce projects with filmmakers who speak a distinctive cinematic language. Telemark’s creative docs (Pianoforte, Over the Limit, Silver) have been screened at and won awards from many festivals in Poland and abroad, including the Sundance Film Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, the Trento Film Festival, the Kraków Film Festival, and Docs Against Gravity
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