The first fiction feature film from award-winning documentarist Jaroslav Vojtek, Children is a poetic omnibus compiling four stories of strained parent-child relations, each set in a different season.

In “Son”, a man tries desperately to connect with his autistic only child, while in “Marathon” a Romani man on the lam goes to extraordinary lengths to be re-united with his family. “Canary” features a shy, bird-obsessed boy who is tyrannised by a drunkard stepfather and “Dad” concerns a woman, distraught at her partner’s betrayal, attempting to attend to her dying father’s needs ahead of her own.

Combining documentary verism in performance, featuring professional and non-professional actors alike, with beautifully composed cinematography, Children is a very striking, moving big-screen experience.