At the housing estate they call home, Jake, Kyle and Jarred hang around playing billiards, partying, smoking pot, watching porn, and talking about sex. They welcome anything that breaks the routine, for example a new neighbour such as the pretty teenage girl Zara, who just moved into the estate with her younger sister. Standing at the window on the top floor, Jake can survey the whole housing block. Something about this place captivates him; the solitude, the isolation, the anonymity. In high contrast black and white, set to haunting organ music, the film portrays a teenager under the burden of a secret he cannot tell anyone.

Rafael Kapelinski, born in Toruń/Poland in 1970, left a job in banking to pursue a career in film, starting off as the director of the Festival Office for the Camerimage Film Festival in Poland. He subsequently attended the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing in Warsaw, the London Film School and the National Film and Television School in the UK. His short films EMILY CRIES (2006), THE FOUNDATION (2009) and THE INFORMER (2011) have won over 25 awards at international film festivals. In 2009, he was selected for a residency in Paris as part of the Cannes International Film Festival.

BUTTERFLY KISSES is his debut feature film and won the Chrystal Bear in the section Generation 14plus at this year’s Berlinale.