Czech filmmaker Pepa Lubojacki initially wanted to make a film about pigeons, captivated by their intelligence and the way society often overlooks the cruelty directed toward them. She noticed how people watched children kick and chase pigeons without stopping them, a behavior she linked to how society often ignores the suffering of homeless individuals. Her own family has experienced homelessness, including her brother and cousins. One cousin was denied medical care seven times while in the hospital with open wounds before having a leg amputated. This inspired her first documentary, If Pigeons Turned to Gold, which has become one of the most talked about and praised films in recent Czech cinema. To create the film, Lubojacki spent five years following the lives of four family members living on the streets of Prague. She explored the reasons behind their addictions and lack of housing, uncovering deep-rooted issues like intergenerational trauma, domestic abuse, and the loss of both her biological father and stepfather. The film, shot mostly on an iPhone, features creative elements like a talking pigeon meme, AI voiceovers on animated family photos, and manipulated child portraits of Lubojacki and her brother. It also includes flashbacks to the 1990s, when she and her brother grew up in state-built housing where drug use was common. The film centers on Lubojacki’s brother, David, whose battle with addiction is both heartbreaking and intimate. It captures moments of connection as well as cycles of withdrawal and relapse. Addiction is a major issue in the Czech Republic, a country known for its popular pilsner beer and low alcohol taxes, leading to high consumption rates. In Prague, the cost of housing is among the least affordable in the European Union, making it difficult for people like David to find stable living conditions. Lubojacki expresses frustration with systemic injustice, recounting how her brother was physically abused by police and denied care by medical staff due to his addiction. She once admired David, a local skater and hip-hop enthusiast, and wants viewers to see the beauty in him, challenging the idea that addiction is solely a matter of willpower. The film uses diary entries, footage from Lubojacki’s time in a psychiatric ward, and poetic visuals of her sinking underwater. One entry reads: “I’m just a little strawberry seed in the sea, a drowned strawberry seed, in an attempt to change something that is not up to me to change.” Lubojacki, who also aspires to be a writer, cites authors like Ottessa Moshfegh and Melissa Broder as influences. The film grapples with the question of grieving someone still alive, especially as research shows people living on the streets often die 16 years earlier than the general population. She believes society is in an "epidemic of addiction" but finds it hard to discuss without shame, a feeling she experienced growing up. Despite her fears of rejection, Lubojacki’s film has received widespread acclaim. Initially a student project, it has won awards at European film festivals, including the Berlin Film Festival’s documentary prize for “remarkable achievement in recruiting documentary into sustained practice of radical empathy.” It was also selected as the Czech Republic’s official submission for the 99th Oscars. Many viewers have reached out to share their own family stories. In the end, the pigeons in the title do not turn to gold or silver, as they are simply what they are. Lubojacki has moved from demanding her brother change his behavior for her or their mother to accepting him fully. She now shares the best relationship with her brother that they have ever had. The empathy she has received gives her hope that people like her brother are valued. “We learned to avert our eyes, but if one breaks the silence, others will follow,” she says.