“A poetic reminder that the open gaze of a child is something we could learn from.”

Can we truly determine when childhood ends and adulthood begins? At some point we have all left our inner child behind, but in hindsight, looking at the mess we frequently make as adults, maybe we should have kept a bit of that innocence and sense of wonder inside us. That is the thesis of Jaśmina Wójcik’s second feature-length documentary King Matt the First, in which she portrays her two young, cherub-faced daughters in the context of an adult world facing war and a pandemic. Intimate and tender, but perhaps slightly off balance when showing the two girls growing apart as her oldest crosses the barrier into adolescence, the film is a poetic reminder that the open gaze of a child is something we could learn from.

We first meet Lea and Zoja as they follow classes through Zoom meetings, quietly signaling that we are still in COVID times. The kids discuss a novel, King Matt the First, a century-old children’s book written by Janusz Korczak, the pen name of pediatrician and educator Henryk Goldszmit. In the novel the titular character, a child, is catapulted to the throne and into adulthood by the sudden death of his father, in a way mirroring the transition Wójcik’s daughters will have to face not too far in the future. Both girls fear that transition because they have already seen what adults are capable of. As the years progress, and conflicts in Ukraine and later Gaza start, war begins to creep into their play games, yet always with an understanding that war is something wrong. Something else also happens as they gain years. While Lea still has her innocence, Zoja becomes more conscious of her place in the world and drifts away from her sister. Where before they were inseparable, now she is drawn more to her peers. From early on it was clear that she was the older one, from the way she read the novel to her sister to how she discussed its meaning, so inevitably she would be the first to cross the threshold.

Two children, one still fully in childhood while the other is on the precipice, perhaps not willing to take the leap, but inevitably leaping anyway. Wójcik subtly signals this by having older kids come into the frame, with Lea trying to insert herself into that group unsuccessfully. Or when Lea is still wearing a young girl’s bathing suit, but Zoja starts wearing bikinis. It’s the same subtlety shown in the opening scene, where with just a few words and a couple of shots we establish that the pandemic is still raging. It’s these small moments that show Wójcik’s skill as a storyteller, perhaps as effective as the one whose book the girls are reading. Korzcak’s work has been influential on Wójcik’s, and his dedication to understanding a child’s perspective on the world and its ability to be present in the here and now could be a guideline for us as adults on how to handle thorny conflicts better.

Wójcik and her family lived together with the crew for four years, which ensured a trust level in Lea and Zoja that shows on camera. They act completely natural and uninhibited, even though cinematographer Jakub Wróblewski often takes them in extreme close-ups. A shallow depth-of-field creates an enormous intimacy and a feeling as if we are truly in a child’s inner world. Their conversations are remarkably evolved for two young girls, especially towards the end, even though Lea is only 10 years old at that point. The final section of the film is dedicated to Zoja’s self-discovery and how this creates a distance between her and her sister, and this is the focus that Wójcik could perhaps have expanded; it’s the most interesting part given that one is going over to the side that they initially both feared, and it would have been nice to see more of how that affected them individually as well as their relationship in the long run. Unfortunately, this process only takes up 20 minutes or so, which gives the film an unfinished feel, as if missing a closing part. Still, King Matt the First is a beautiful piece of observational documentary making, and one that gives good insight into the minds of children and their innocence and inquisitive nature; a nature that we can learn from.