By John Corrado
The 2026 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 23rd to May 3rd in Toronto
In the slice-of-life documentary On My Own Terms, director Tadeusz Chudy follows teenaged half-siblings Pawel and Julka, who are living together at an orphanage in Poland.
Pawel is a promising young boxer, whose coach sees a lot of potential in him if he can only keep up with training. But his living situation is preventing him from devoting all of his time and attention to the sport. Julka has acquired an apartment from her father, and wants to set it up so her and Pawel can live in it together, but faces challenges and setbacks of her own.
Working with two young subjects who appear completely comfortable in front of the camera, Chudy takes a vérité approach to following them. The film is short at 67 minutes, and can feel like it lacks some structure at times. But On My Own Terms mainly works as a real life coming-of-age story, that poignantly showcases the close sibling bond between these two disadvantaged teens finding ways to support each other.
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