28/07/2026 - Animator Piotr Chmielewski relays an important message in his new short, produced with the NGO Polish Humanitarian Action

The lesson is about to start. Nearly all the young pupil-beetles are there, waiting patiently for their artistic excrement-ball evaluation from the teacher. There is one beetle, however, who is struggling to roll their ball uphill to reach the school. She’s running late, so eventually the class starts without her. That’s how Piotr Chmielewski opens his 10-minute animation Beetles, produced in collaboration with the NGO Polish Humanitarian Action. After premiering at Animateka in Ljubljana last December, the film reached Slovakia’s Fest Anča in the non-competitive sidebar Anča in Wonderland.

In Beetles, each dung ball is different, as it is made by a different insect, each one more or less suited to its maker. Without doubt, the dung beetle has done his homework perfectly. The bigger beetle has a bigger ball, and the richer beetle’s is much shinier and smoother (since he was able to pay for additional classes). One pupil’s ball is covered in flowers and mud, as her neighbourhood lacks sufficient dung; there is still another whose ball is crooked and imperfect, and received with much dissatisfaction from the teacher.

In this short stop-motion production, told in rhyming voice-over narration that sounds like a mother reciting a bedtime story, Chmielewski highlights the differences between different species of beetles. At the same time, he implies that pupils (and indeed all children) should be treated differently but equitably. After all, the fish was not created to fly, nor was the apple-blossom beetle created to make a perfect excrement-ball. Such statements eventually lead to a realisation – that through helping each other, such differences can easily be overcome.

By presenting different characters falling into their specified stereotypes, Beetles fights prejudice and injustice (hence, presumably, the involvement of that NGO). Chmielewski creates a fable-like narrative that shows different perspectives on the issue and teaches how a single action can change someone’s attitude. Through rhymes and adorable characters, he manages to convey a simple yet important message: only by working together can we create a better world for those less privileged than ourselves.