The Wind over Aleppo on Eter Anima Festival, 2026
The film THE WIND OVER ALEPPO by Agnieszka Sadurska in the ETER Anima Festival competition, which takes place in Łódź from September 30 to October 3, 2026. The film will be shown in the animation competition for children from 12 to 14 years old.
Animation that tackles difficult topics but talks about them in a language understandable to the youngest. This section will bring together stories about friendship, imagination, acceptance and everyday challenges – sometimes funny, sometimes touching, always close to a child’s view of the world. It is a program built for the whole family and for animated cinema to be accessible to every viewer, regardless of their abilities. The simple form often hides a surprisingly mature message.
STILLS:
CREDITS:
Directed, screenplay, dialogue, artistic design, and backgrounds by Agnieszka Sadurska
A story based on the book of Grzegorz Gortat „My Wonderful Childhood in Aleppo”
Music, sound effects by Piotr Kubiak
Music performed by Marek Czmochowski – piano; Piotr Kubiak – violin, keyboard; Przemysław Pogocki – oud; Kamil Rogiński – oriental instruments; Robert Stefański – clarinet; Adrian Walkiewicz – trumpet
Sound by Piotr Kubiak – Playade Ltd.
Sound Assistant by Piotr Stefański
Character animation designs by Julia Kożuszek
Layout by Julia Kożuszek, Janusz Gałązkowski
Animation by Julia Hazuka, Józef Trzaska, Katarzyna Orłowska, Paulina Konopacka, Diana Lempart, Janusz Matusik, Alina Stetsenko, and Kacper Porczyk, Vivien Csigó, Veronika Gladchuk, Paulina Belcarz
Ink and paint by Anna Dudek, Daria Kruszka, Dana Danylova, Julia Hazuka, Katarzyna Orłowska, Janusz Matusik, Iwo Domagalski
Animatic, rendering by Anna Gałązkowska
painting animation by Agnieszka Sadurska
Compositing, editing by Janusz Czubak
Collaboration, editing offline by Anna Gałązkowska
Colour correction by Edyta Sęk-Koniarska
Film editor by Krystyna Chojnacka
Production Manager: Mariola Olejniczak
Executive Producer: Ewa Sobolewska
Producer, production: TV Studio Filmów Animowanych Sp. z o.o.
Co-production: Agimagine, Telewizja Polska SA, EC1 Łódź – Miasto Kultury
Animation 2D, 25:00 min., colour, format 2K 1998 x 1080, stereo 5.1.
Date of production: 2026-02-01
© 2026 TV Studio Filmów Animowanych Sp. z o.o., Agimagine – Agnieszka Sadurska, Telewizja Polska SA, „EC1 Łódź – Miasto Kultury” w Łodzi
About the film:
The script of the film is inspired by Grzegorz Gortat’s important and powerful novel “My Wonderful Childhood in Aleppo”. Young viewers will be able to get emotionally closer to the essence of the war conflict, which is ruthlessly experienced by children, although it affects them the least. The besieged Aleppo is a stage on which the world of war is shown through the eyes of a child. Jasmin and her friends live their childhood in completely different conditions than their peers from countries where there is peace. The war in Syria is an exotic snapshot from news services for Europeans. The film shows not only the situation in Aleppo, but the essence of the drama of children involved in war conflicts, incited by adults around the world. The film is a tribute to the children who stayed in Aleppo. The message of the film is the idea that even the most difficult time can be survived with the support of family, friends and a little optimism.
The war in Syria lasted over thirteen years. Aleppo was almost completely destroyed. Seven million Syrians have left their country. Thousands of children lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands went missing, got injured, maimed, or orphaned.
Film screenings:
30 September, 1:30 p.m., MeMo Mediateka, free admission, registration required
1 October, 2:00 p.m., Urania Room – NCKF Cinema, admission passes + tickets
About the Festival:
ETER Anima Festival was established as a successor to the StopTrik festival, which took place in Łódź for fourteen editions and built a space for stop-motion animation, original cinema and meetings with filmmakers from Polish and the world. ETER grows out of this history but opens it up more widely. It maintains attention to form, matter and handicraft, and at the same time expands the program to include all types of film animation.
Today, animation no longer fits into a single technique. It can be created from a puppet, drawing, plasticine, light, code, digital image, collage or a completely non-obvious experiment. ETER was created to show this diversity and to rekindle the conversation about animation as one of the most expressive languages of cinema.
The name ETER refers to what is invisible but felt. To a space where image meets movement and technique meets emotion. In animation, it is this elusive moment that makes the still elements come to life. That is why ETER is a symbol of the energy that brings film to life and merges different animation languages into one festival story.
The festival combines respect for tradition with curiosity about new forms. On the one hand, it returns to what has been the strength of StopTrik for years, i.e. stop motion animation, the materiality of the image and cinema created frame by frame. On the other hand, it opens up to computer techniques, original visual explorations, children’s cinema, feature films, short forms and films that escape simple categories.
The ETER programme will include film competitions, animation screenings from Polish and around the world, meetings with filmmakers, workshops, masterclasses and events for young audiences. The ETER IFF is a place for professionals, students, artists, families, cinephiles and all those who believe that animation can tell about the world as strongly as live-action cinema, and sometimes even more strongly.
ETER is not just a review of films. It is a story about how a picture comes to life. About how movement is born from stillness, emotion from matter, and the whole world from a single frame. It is a festival for those who want to look more carefully, discover new languages of cinema and see where imagination can lead.
