Janusz Korczak: Guardian of Innocence

Synopsis

Janusz Korczak: Guardian of Innocence is a feature documentary directed by Niamh Heerythat explores the remarkable life, ideas, and enduring influence of pioneering children’s rights advocate Janusz Korczak.

Korczak was a Polish-Jewish pediatrician and educator who revolutionized the way society understood childhood. Through his progressive orphanages in Warsaw, he treated children as citizens with voices and rights, establishing child-run courts, parliaments, and newspapers decades ahead of their time. His radical belief in dignity, participation, and respect for young people reshaped educational thinking and continues to influence child-rights practice today.

The film also confronts the profound moral courage that defined Korczak’s final years. During the Second World War, he refused offers of safety and chose to remain with the children in the Warsaw Ghetto, ultimately accompanying them to Treblinka in 1942.

Bridging past and present, the documentary follows young people from around the world as they gather in Warsaw in 2026 to recreate Korczak’s courts, parliament, and newspaper inside the rebuilt Dom Sierot. Their participation brings Korczak’s vision vividly into the present, asking what empathy, civic courage, and children’s rights demand of a new generation.

About the Director

Niamh Heery

Niamh Heery is an Irish writer-director who works in documentary and fiction. Her drama work is often inspired by the people she meets as a community filmmaker. Her work has won the Writer’s Guild of Ireland Award, the Radharc Award, RTÉ/Ardán Script Award, ICCL Human Rights Film Award and won at festivals at home and abroad. She also works on socially engaged factual TV productions. Documentary and feature projects are currently in development with the Irish state agency Screen Ireland. She has been selected for Screen Ireland’s POV Talent Scheme, The Writers Lab UK & Europe 2023, NTA Director’s Lab 2023 and Perspectives Feature Development scheme 2025.

Artistic Statement

Empathy is my primary driving force as a director. I believe that placing yourself in another person’s shoes, seeing the world through their eyes, is one of the most powerful ways to create understanding and inspire change. Cinema is one of our greatest tools for achieving this. That’s why I’m so excited to bring Janusz Korczak’s story and life’s work to the screen, to engage young people in his impactful ideology, and show people now how important it is to stand up for care and love while hate simmers and rises in our world today.