Kundel is an eleven-year-old boy who escapes from an orphanage to return to his home town. There, his young alcoholic mother disowns him and kicks him out. He is also rejected by the other kids who call him "Mongrel", but undaunted and resolute, he finds an abandoned barge in which he makes a home for himself. Kundel is not only a very resourceful child with a strong survival instinct, he is also a fundamentally good person, being especially sensitive to creatures weaker than himself. He then meets Kuleczka, a pretty girl of his own age, from a well-off family living in a house nearby, and soon they discover a sense of affection and love in each other's company. Kundel forages, collecting scrap metal which he sells in town, while he dreams about being a poet one day – and he is marginal and independent enough to create his own wholly separate world, at least for a while.
Jestem (I am) tells the story of a boy searching for his place in life, his identity, whilst trying to avoid both the social pressures of his peers and the de-personalising life of the state-run institution. The splendid cinematography, with soft-coloured sepia-toned images, gives a comforting warmth to this beautiful film and Michael Nyman's musical score is both a sweeping and intimate addition. Writer and director Dorota Kędzierzawska, who has an extraordinary way with child actors, based Kundel, the main character of this award-winning film, on a real child she met who lived in the woods and dreamed of being a poet.
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