The Coal’s Daughter


Olivia in her twenties, persuaded by her mother starts working physically in the coalmine.
She follows the family tradition of working in one of the harshest industrial departments.
Olivia gets to know the strictly men’s environment.

The mine with its workers becomes sub-character of the movie itself. Visually it resembles the in XIX century setting.

Olivia is torn between her sister, representing modernity and her mother, who belongs to the coal mining tradition cultivated from generations.
The movie is created in novel like character referring to the inevitable sequence of the seasons, accompanied by the music compositions of Max Richter.

The story evokes impending nature of what is inescapable in Olivia’s life, who also historically may belong to the last generation working in the coalmine industry.

  • Aneta Elżbieta Novitzka
    Director
  • Aneta Nowicka
    Writer
  • Jacek Kucharski
    Producer
  • Aneta Nowicka
    Key Cast
    "Aneta Nowicka"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 6 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 30, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    80,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Poland
  • Country of Filming:
    Poland
  • Language:
    Polish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Aneta Nowicka
Director Biography - Aneta Elżbieta Novitzka


Aneta Nowicka (Novitzka) went on along journey from visual art, art video to documentary filmmaking.
As an artis she won the First Prize in the category of Photography at Biennial of Contemporary Art in Argentina with her project ICONS. She received Honorable Hention during another Biannale of Art in Versilia and several Honorable Mentions from International Photography Contest. She received travel grant from national newspaper Gazeta and Kulczyk Investment Foundation to spend mentoring session in LA by mentor from Netflix.
She have had exhibitions in Berlin, Warsaw, Buenos Aires, New York, during Cannes Art Fair and Miami ArtSpectrum.
In the last year, her short video art "Dairy of the body" was presented in Florence.
Now she is focused on human being while directing documentaries.
The “Coal daughter” is her first feature documentary.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The movie "The Coal’s daughter" went through lot's of transformations. From choosing the characters, through gathering the film crew focusing on the same values: visually, technically and dramaturgically.
We did focus on a journey of our main character, young Olivia, who full of enthusiasm enters the world of coal mine. But we also understood how the coal-mine as a one of characters enriches the movie by it's unconventional beauty and it's dark side. We did take the challenge of finding the locations and filming the same landscapes during four seasons. We did it not just to give the sense of time passing but also to be able to depict conflicts; whether Olivia accepts to repeat her mother's path or not, the four seasons in this concept reflect her journey.
We also wanted to show probably the last generation of women working in those sorting departments and their life's paths even if they may remain relict of former epoch. It is worth mentioning, that in this both observational and creative documentary we do not judge the Olivia. We just follow her and her choices.
We did also wanted this picture to talk about the family tradition, a heritage uneasy to free from.