A boy crouches in a dark stairwell, looking up at a punching bag hanging in front of a bright window

“Mom, I want to be a champion”

Growing Up

A feature documentary by Adam Roszkowski

Trailer

Everyone has dreams. Statistically, only 8 to 10 percent of people reach their long-term goals.

Łukasz sits alone on a bench in an empty weightlifting gym, head bowed

Over five years, we follow a teenage boxer as he grows up chasing one goal: to become the Polish junior champion. We see him leave home for good, go on his first date, and train so hard it costs him his childhood.

An intimate observation of coming of age, caught between dreams, physical and mental pain, and brief moments of happiness. A film about a fight that begins far outside the ring, at a very young age.

Artistic supervision: Marcel Łoziński

Format: Feature documentary
Running time: 70 min 36 s
Country: Poland
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English
Aspect ratio: 16:9 and CinemaScope
Sound: 5.1 / Stereo
Completed: June 2026

Five years. One dream.

Shot over five years, Growing Up stays close to Łukasz Perkowski from the age of fifteen, as one goal reshapes his family, his first love and himself.

Łukasz and his mother talk in a sunlit room, seen through a half-open door

The Mother

We captured the moment a teenager leaves the family home, most likely never to return.

Olimpia sits on a bed behind Łukasz in a dimly lit bedroom

First Love

Olimpia, his classmate and first love, becomes the new woman in his life, and in his mother’s life too.

Silhouette of a young boxer walking down a long, dark corridor

Boy to Man

From fifteen to adulthood. Łukasz wants to be treated as a grown man, but he is still a child.

A coach speaks to a young boxer in red headgear between rounds

The Title

One sporting goal above everything else: winning the Polish Junior Championship.

News

Protagonists

Łukasz Perkowski

The boxer

Fifteen years old, from a large family on a housing estate in Warsaw’s Bielany district. He has trained since the age of ten, and the gym has become his place in the world. Quiet and withdrawn day to day, he comes alive in the ring. He dreams of becoming the Polish junior champion.

Monika Perkowska

The mother

A 44-year-old mother of three who holds the household together. She hopes boxing will keep Łukasz on the right path and give him a different life from his father’s, but she would rather he trained closer to home than at a boxing school more than 550 km away.

Olimpia Konczalska

The first love

Łukasz’s classmate, who trains at the same boxing club. Disciplined, warm and outgoing, she brings out a Łukasz who smiles. She hopes a championship title will bring sponsors and let them move into a flat of their own.

Crew & Production

Adam Roszkowski

Director, writer, producer

A journalism graduate of the University of Warsaw, he completed the documentary and screenwriting programs at the Wajda School and the Creative Producers course at the Łódź Film School. A former sports journalist at TVN and Nsport and Editor-in-Chief at Red Bull, he runs the production company Okay Films. Growing Up is his documentary debut.

Jakub Wójcik

Cinematography

A graduate of the Łódź Film School and the Wajda School, twice nominated at Camerimage for Symbiofonia. He moves between large fiction productions and small documentary crews, and has shot the sports films Fighter, The Last Challenge and Unfold TaZ.

Jerzy Zawadzki PSM

Editor

A Łódź Film School graduate and member of the Polish Editors Association. His cut of the sports documentary The Unstoppable won the main award at the Krakow Film Festival, and Close Ties, which he edited, was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.

Antoni Wojnar

Composer

Film composer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. From 2017 to 2021 he assisted Academy Award winner Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, working on films including Valley of the Gods, The Happy Worker and Paul, Apostle of Christ.

Marcel Łoziński

Artistic supervisor

One of Poland’s foremost documentary filmmakers. He was nominated for an Academy Award for 89 mm from Europe and won the European Film Award for Poste Restante. He guided Growing Up through the Wajda School’s DOK PRO program.

Production

Production: Okay Films
Producer: Adam Roszkowski
Film partner: Wajda Studio
Developed at: Wajda School, DOK PRO documentary program
Co-production: Mazovian Institute of Culture, Mazovian and Warsaw Film Fund, West Pomeranian Film Fund Pomerania Film
Co-financed by: Polish Film Institute
Sound: Martyna Gromotka
Color grading: Edyta Sęk-Koniarska

Growing Up

Trailer