DAD YOU’VE NEVER HAD

DAD YOU'VE NEVER HAD

A subtly and sensitively told story of a daughter’s complicated relationship with her father. She sets off on a journey to see the man who abandoned her in the past. Her father lets her into his flat and tries to answer her questions. Together, they pore over the letters they have written to each other over the years. She cleans his flat and sets both her father’s world and her own relationship with him in order. A difficult confrontation arises between them. This is a film about a daughter’s profound longing for her father and the acceptance of the fact that it is longing which will never be appeased.

  • Genre: Documentary
  • Country: Poland
  • Running time: 29
  • Year: 2020
  • Color: colour

Director: Dominika Łapka

Script: Dominika Łapka

DOP: Weronika Bilska

Music: Tomasz Gąssowski

Editing: Wojciech Jagiełło

Sound: Krzysztof Ridan

Production company: Studio Munka

Trailer

About the director:

Dominika Łapka

Dominika Łapka

Dominika Łapka graduated in film studies from the Jagellonian University in Krakow, in screenwriting from the Łódź Film School and from the Wajda School, where she took part in the Development Lab and Script programmes. She made her debut as a director with Lila (2015), a short feature which has been screened at international festivals all over the world and has won a number of awards, including a Best Selection award at the Kaohsiung Film Festival (Tawain, 2016) and the Andrzej Dolata Award for the Best Debut at the Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival (USA, 2016). Dad You Never Had is her first documentary.

At festivals:

60th Krakow Film Festival, 2020, Poland, 2020 (Special Mention)

26th International Documentary Film Festival It’s All True, Brazil, 2021 (competition)

5th West Lake International Documentary Festival, 2021, China, 2021 (competition)

9th FIDBA International Documentary Film Festival of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2021 (screening)