Heleen Suèr on Crafting ’When F***ing Spring is in the air’: From Euro-Orphans to Emotional Empowerment

What attracted you to the story of “F***ing Spring” and what inspired you to co-write this project?

Danyael mentioned a TV report he saw about Euro-orphans during a visit to his grandmother in Poland. The story of children growing up with their grandparents or in orphanages because their parents moved to Western Europe for work resonated with me, especially as a mother of two adopted Afro-American children. The concept of parents leaving their children behind, initially to support the family, really hit home. I wanted to explore the emotional complexity behind such decisions, drawing parallels to my experiences with the birth mothers of my children, who faced similar challenges. This personal connection to the material made me eager to tell this story, and it felt crucial to represent the perspective of the parents who leave their children in search of a better life.

During the development of the story, we frequently encountered personal reactions like, “I also have a parent who abandoned me,” or “What kind of mother (or father) does this?” This story touches on family dynamics, which is something everyone has experienced in some form. We wanted to do justice to each character, portraying them with depth, and ultimately write a hopeful narrative about family and love. I was also excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Danyael again.

How was your collaboration with Danyael Sugawara during the writing process? How did you divide the roles?

“F***ing Spring” is the third project I’ve developed with Danyael. We know each other well, allowing us to have passionate discussions about the project without taking disagreements personally. This mutual respect enables us to challenge each other creatively without blocking the process or letting ego get in the way. This dynamic allowed us to alternate writing versions of the script.

Initially, Danyael was the director with the concept, and I was the screenwriter. We started  off in these respective roles at the Ekran workshop at the Andrzej Wajda Masterschool of Film Directing in Warsaw. Danyael stayed in Poland after the workshop, spending time with his family and collecting new ideas for the story. At the time, I was also working on another feature project, so instead of waiting for me to incorporate his ideas into a new treatment, Danyael wrote a version himself. I then rewrote his version as the screenwriter. I’m more focused on language, while Danyael thinks strategically about the script, considering the long-term narrative structure. We complemented each other well in this process.

Towards the end of the script development and beginning of pre-production, I wanted to do the final “polishing” of the script, allowing Danyael to distance himself a bit and focus on translating the text into film. This also involved making adjustments to certain scenes to meet practical production requirements.

What challenges did you encounter during the writing process, and how did you overcome them?

Kasia quickly became a strong main character with a defined personality, but every character around her also had a significant story. The challenge was to give each character depth and avoid judgment. Danyael and I both enjoy dramatic confrontations between characters, but we also have a lot of empathy for people and their shortcomings. One of the early feedback sessions at Ekran had a producer (Zanussi) suggesting that the characters should be punished for their major mistakes, which would have simplified the drama but also made it flat and less interesting. We chose to portray three generations of Polish characters, shaped by the changes in Eastern European society, within a universally recognizable family dynamic, all with room for humor and emotional release.

This balancing act required a lot of adjustments, particularly in maintaining the rhythm of Kasia’s journey. Another challenge was the financing of such an international project because no single financier felt fully responsible for a Dutch-made story, spoken mostly in Polish, and set across three different countries. Over the course of 11 years, we had to repeatedly adapt the script to different financiers and evolving circumstances. At times, I doubted whether the film would ever be made, but Trent continually found new possibilities. Thankfully, it’s a timeless and universally relatable story that has since been sold to over 50 countries.

How has your experience as a mother of two adopted children influenced your approach to the story and characters?

I grew up in a safe and harmonious family, so the feeling of questioning my own existence is foreign to me. However, being so intimately connected to my children, who joined our family as infants, has taught me a great deal about the meaning of attachment and family bonds. I have immense respect for their birth mothers and the difficult decision they made, driven by uncertainty about what they could offer their child. My daughter directly inspired the character of Kasia, and although she is Afro-American and physically different from the actress Ada, I saw something of my daughter in Ada’s performance. This emotional connection moves me every time I watch the film. The scene between Kasia and her mother is particularly significant to me as a tribute to the birth mothers of my children.

During script development, we often received harsh judgments about Ewa, Kasia’s mother, with comments like, “What kind of mother abandons her child?” or from Polish readers, “Polish mothers don’t do that.” Danyael and I conducted interviews with Euro-orphans, and we knew that Polish mothers do leave their children, not because they are bad mothers, but because they themselves are in difficult situations. My adopted children and their birth mothers were a direct inspiration for the characters in “F***ing Spring.”

What motivates you most in your work as a writer, and how do you stay creatively inspired?

I’m always inspired by the people around me and their stories. Staying motivated through the long and complicated journey from story to feature film to audience is more challenging. But then I encounter another powerful person with an important story that I feel compelled to tell. When I see superficial judgments and polarizing texts in the media, it drives me to counter them with stories that build bridges between different people or groups. My motivation to write comes from a desire to share my optimistic view of humanity and stories of hope with a broad audience. I acknowledge the tragedy, misery, and aggression in life, but I also always see the irony, humor, or beauty that often lies hidden within.

Do you have any routines or rituals that help you with writing or developing new ideas?

Not really.

How do you balance your work as a screenwriter with your roles as a mother and guest lecturer at the Film Academy?

It’s a challenge, especially finding mental space. To write, I need to clear my workday, have no appointments, and ideally have several uninterrupted days to fully immerse myself in the world of the characters.

What was your reaction when you heard that the project was rejected by the Polish Film Fund for political reasons?

My first reaction was disbelief, quickly followed by seeing the irony: the project itself became a Euro-orphan—a Polish story that Poland refused to take responsibility for. The real Euro-orphans were already marginalized before the PiS government came to power. When Danyael pitched the story to Andrzej Wajda, the socialist and politically engaged film master, he admitted he had never heard of the phenomenon before but immediately recognized that these three generations—Kasia, her parents, and her grandmother—symbolized Poland’s recent history.

Frankly, it’s always difficult to have your creative process judged by funding bodies because they have their own political agendas that influence project evaluations. This case was particularly extreme, reflecting the shocking rise of radical right-wing power in Poland, a situation now familiar to us with populists in our own government.

Which aspects of “F***ing Spring” are you most proud of, and why do you think this story is important to tell today?

I’m most proud of our team—Danyael, Trent, and myself—for sticking with this project for 14 years, believing in our collaboration, and keeping the soul of the project alive. Kasia’s story is not just personal to Danyael and my children but also to Ada, the actress, and many others who have experienced family separation due to economic, political, or personal reasons.

I’m incredibly proud of every laugh and tear the film elicits, and I’m thrilled that Kasia’s character resonates with younger audiences, like my HBO students. And the best part was the appreciation from my son and daughter, who are now teenagers and both very critical viewers.