Director Ania Winiarska almost gave up on “Good Girls.” “After six months, I felt like I’d hit a wall. I’ve never had this problem before,” she told Variety. This one was about teenage girls and even though I’m a woman, I didn’t realize how much shame they carry.
I wasn’t prepared for meeting them.” In her doc, premiering at Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, Winiarska enters a Polish correctional center for girls. Others end up there for skipping school, drinking or dating.
Inside, they’re faced with discipline and constant surveillance. I think they viewed me as an outsider, but also as someone who was part of the system,” she recalled. But once they accepted me, we never had any issues.
They would tell all the new girls: ‘She’s good. She’s not a snitch.’” International rights to “Good Girls” are being sold by Stranger Film Sales. Produced by Story, Film i Väst and Tekele Productions, it premieres an exclusive clip here: Winiarska, who is Polish, currently lives in Sweden.
She was shocked to discover a world that hadn’t changed for decades. They try to help the girls, but it’s complicated because this system is so outdated.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.” Societies may be changing, but the ideas of what constitutes a “good girl” and a “bad girl” are still prevalent. Certain prejudices are very much alive,” she noted. I was lucky to have parents who cared about me.
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