Pepa Lubojacki’s documentary *If Pigeons Turned to Gold* follows her brother and relatives as they struggle with alcohol addiction and homelessness in Prague. Using intimate footage, animation and a talking pigeon, the film challenges the belief that addiction results simply from weak willpower, while exposing public prejudice and failures in policing, healthcare and social support.

Made over five years and filmed largely on an iPhone, the 110-minute documentary explores intergenerational trauma, domestic abuse and bereavement against a Czech backdrop of high alcohol consumption, low alcohol taxation and unaffordable housing. Lubojacki’s brother David is the central figure, while the film also reflects her own mental-health difficulties and asks whether it is possible to grieve someone who is still alive; one study cited says people sleeping rough die 16 years earlier than the general population.