If Pigeons Turned to Gold

Over a five-year period Pepa Lubojacki documents the lives of four family members, first and foremost brother David who is an alcoholic and homeless. Using a highly personal, diary-like collage Lubojacki attempts to lay bare the roots of intergenerational misfortune repeatedly manifested in severe addiction. Text sculptures, long-term observations, synth-infused beats and AI-animated childhood photos merge here into a striking and playful, unsparing yet loving revelation. If Pigeons Turned to Gold is both an act of surrender and a shimmer of hope, a show of strength and a process of resolution. Pepa Lubojacki thus brings the past to life, creating a context that shields David and their cousins, also suffering from addiction, from the judgmental gaze of the outside world – and its ignorance. In their gentle encounter, for one moment they become lonely children once again. Not so much in search of guilt but more healing, the end brings the possibility of a transformation, symbolized in the father’s dilapidated house that Pepa transforms into a safe space: Home, I’m coming. (Carolin Weidner)

Pepa Lubojacki (they/she) is a Prague-based screenwriter and documentary film director whose work focuses on topics such as gender binarity and stereotypes, addiction, and intergenerational trauma. Pepa loves strawberries, bats, and pigeons, and they are vegan for the animals, having cared for many, including a 20-year-old cat, fifty water snails, and baby sheep. For the past few years, they have been working on a novel about human-eating creatures and addiction.

Director Pepa Lubojacki. Screenplay Pepa Lubojacki. Cinematography Pepa Lubojacki, Tomáš Šťastný. Editing Pepa Lubojacki. Music Adam Matej. Producers Wanda Kaprálová, Klára Mamojková. Co-Producer Matej Sotník. Production company CLAW films (Prag, Czechia). With David Richter, Pepa Lubojacki, David Lubojacki, Marco Arnone.

Films: 2019: O-chlup / About-hair (short film). 2026: If Pigeons Turned to Gold.