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Talking pigeon documentary challenges Czechia’s stigma around alcohol addiction
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.
In short
- Documentary links addiction and homelessness to trauma and social neglect.
- Czechia faces particularly high alcohol consumption and housing pressures.
- Lubojacki seeks compassion for her brother and others facing addiction.
Explained simply
Alcohol addiction can affect a person’s health, relationships and ability to keep a home. It is often treated as a matter of personal willpower, but addiction can also be shaped by trauma, bereavement and mental health.
In Prague, director Pepa Lubojacki’s brother David and other relatives have experienced addiction and homelessness. The film places their lives in the context of Czechia, where alcohol is widely consumed and housing can be unaffordable.
The story also raises questions about how police, health services and social support respond to people who are homeless or living with addiction. Their treatment matters because people sleeping rough face serious risks to their health and may die younger than the general population.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “‘Addiction is not only caused by weak will’: how a talking pigeon got Czechia to face up to its alcohol problem”.