{"id":666015,"date":"2026-10-26T17:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T17:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666015\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T17:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T17:24:10","slug":"good-girls-director-ania-winiarska-talks-doc-premieres-clip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666015\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Good Girls’ Director Ania Winiarska Talks Doc, Premieres Clip"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDirector Ania Winiarska<\/a> almost gave up on \u201cGood Girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAfter six months, I felt like I\u2019d hit a wall. I\u2019ve never had this problem before,\u201d she told Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was always very natural for me to gain people\u2019s trust, but my previous films were about boys or men. This one was about teenage girls and even though I\u2019m a woman, I didn\u2019t realize how much shame they carry. I wasn\u2019t prepared for meeting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her doc, premiering at Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, Winiarska enters a Polish correctional center for girls. Some are escaping abuse. Others end up there for skipping school, drinking or dating. Inside, they\u2019re faced with discipline and constant surveillance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was just another adult in a very strict institution where they had to obey all the rules and regulations. I think they viewed me as an outsider, but also as someone who was part of the system,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt took me two years before I could start filming. But once they accepted me, we never had any issues. They would tell all the new girls: \u2018She\u2019s good. She\u2019s not a snitch.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational rights to \u201cGood Girls\u201d are being sold by Stranger Film Sales. Produced by Story, Film i V\u00e4st and Tekele Productions, it premieres an exclusive clip here:<\/p>\n

\n\tWiniarska, who is Polish, currently lives in Sweden. She was shocked to discover a world that hadn\u2019t changed for decades.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMost of these people mean well. They try to help the girls, but it\u2019s complicated because this system is so outdated. Rather than trying to catch up with the 21st century, the girls are taught how to cook and sew. Religious classes are no longer compulsory, but they were when I was filming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSocieties may be changing, but the ideas of what constitutes a \u201cgood girl\u201d and a \u201cbad girl\u201d are still prevalent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn some countries, and that includes Poland, good girls are quiet and obedient. Certain prejudices are very much alive,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t talk to our children about growing up, puberty or sex education. I was lucky to have parents who cared about me. When I got into trouble, they helped me. If I hadn\u2019t had that, I would probably be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMost of her young protagonists don\u2019t even fit the center\u2019s profile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMost of these girls shouldn\u2019t even be there. This place is meant for the resocialization of people who have committed crimes or are on the edge of doing so. But when you look closer, you see they got there because they were skipping school, got pregnant or used drugs or alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOr simply because they suffer from mental health issues their families cannot or do not want to handle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the girls suffered from depression that wasn\u2019t properly diagnosed. She was lying in bed for three weeks and her mom, who has similar issues, couldn\u2019t help her. Neither did her school. Instead, the police came and handcuffed her in her pyjamas,\u201d said Winiarska.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s the problem: they don\u2019t recognize their actual needs. I got quite close to the people who work there, and they also admitted they are not trained as psychologists. When you\u2019re not well mentally and you\u2019re are locked up and punished for it, it damages you even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe met girls aged between 10 and 18.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy daughter is 10. It\u2019s scary to think about,\u201d she said. But sometimes the center can provide some safety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMany of them come from neglectful backgrounds and have experienced all sorts of abuse. At least over there they have regular meals, they go to school, and if they feel bad, there\u2019s someone to talk to. They didn\u2019t have that at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s another issue, though. Their time at the center restricts their freedom in the present, yet fails to prepare them for the future.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI only started realizing what\u2019s important in life when I was in my 30s. They leave at 18 with a small amount of money. What are they going to do with it? Some party it away or get pregnant over summer breaks. It\u2019s a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWiniarska adds: \u201cThese girls are strong. They\u2019re funny. But at that age, you don\u2019t understand the world and the world doesn\u2019t understand you. If, on top of that, you come from a disadvantaged family, it\u2019s easy to sink into a big black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf this film could change something in our society, it would be so wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Ania Winiarska almost gave up on \u201cGood Girls.\u201d \u201cAfter six months, I felt like I\u2019d hit a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[282136,2472,93,61,60,63210,270],"class_list":["post-666015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ania-winiarska","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ji-hlava-documentary-film-festival","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}