Tag Archives: Festival

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08.08.2014 Hungarian film festival: movies about Rroma being censored

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In September, the Film Festival CineFest will take place in the north-Hungarian city of Miskolc. Two films about the situation of the Rroma were disinvited by the program director, because they have too much political brisance for the local elections that will be held shortly after the festival. The documentary group DunaDock, who submitted the two films, states: “probably they fear losing government funding if they show our films”, said Diana Gróo from DunaDock to the news agency dpa. The festival director told the Hungarian media that there would be very well a “Roma program” at CineFest, which would show film portraits of “successful Roma”. The festival management did not comment on the rejected films on Roma. CineFest is among others under the auspices of the media agency NMHH, which is often accused of political censorship on behalf of the right-wing nationalist government” (TAZ 2014). Miskolc is a focal point of social conflicts about Roma. The municipal elections will take place on October the 12th. The film festival takes place from the 12th to 21st of September. DunaDock should have expanded the festival with a program series “DunaDock Master Class” as a permanent section. The documentary group announced to totally cancel their contribution to the festival, given the current circumstances: “The explanation of the CineFest leadership is incomprehensible to us; according to them the film festival takes place at the time of local elections, thus to avoid political conflicts and for security reasons they cannot undertake the presentation of any film dealing with the topic of Roma in Hungary; even their usual Roma workshop is cancelled. We believe that the documentary film is a medium that helps the empathy towards our fellow humans and we find it unacceptable that an independent filmmaker professional program’s freedom can be restricted by current politics. Under these circumstances DunaDOCK will not be present at the CineFest and we have notified already the organisers about our decision” (DunaDock 2014). Critical commentators see the disinvitation of the films as symptomatic of the ongoing dismantling of democracy in Hungary, at the expense of media freedom, the protection of minorities, pluralism and the rule of law (compare Kleine Zeitung 2014, Pusztaranger 2014, Spiegel 2014).

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30.05.2014 Celebration of Saint Sara in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

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Dunlop (2014) reports the annual procession in honour of Saint Sara in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, taking place on the 24th and 25th of May. According to legend, Sara was the servant of the three holy Marys who came to France as a result of the persecution of the Christians and founded a Christian community there. Another explanation is that Sarah-la-Kali, as Saint Sara is also called, is a Christian modification of the Hindu Goddess Kali. This hypothesis is supported by the Indian origin of Rroma. During the procession, a statue of the saint is carried from the church to the sea. The ceremony attracts thousands of tourists and goes against the usual negative image of the Rroma. For the incumbent mayor of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Roland Chassain of the UMP, this is not a contradiction. Nicolas Sarkozy is said to appreciate riding and the music of the Rroma very much. Immigration policy is another matter, he states. With this, Dunlop points to a contradiction that is insufficiently discussed. When it comes to economic incentives, such as the famous St. Sara festival, the prejudices are happily laid aside for once. However, this tolerance disappears quickly when it comes to the removal of informal settlements, when the Rroma are again the hated minority: “Gitanes, Tigani, Roma, Gypsies – call them what you will, this is one day a year when, in the remote marshlands of the Camargue, they shed their minority status and become the majority. The sleepy seaside town, a stronghold of the National Front but ruled by the centre-right UMP, is transformed, the locals are outnumbered. “I am not anti-Gypsy”, protests Mayor Roland, “but their young are not disciplined, it has changed. It was different 40 years ago.”” However, Roland neglects in his explanation important historical and political upheavals. Not the young generation, the continued marginalization of the minority and economic crises lead to an escalation of the conflict between the minority and right-wing nationalist groups.

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25.04.2014 Call for a civil rights movement of the Rroma

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Umberto Guerra (2014), by the French Rroma organization Romeurope, takes stock of the history of France Rroma. He regrets that the Rroma, who have been living in France for centuries, are still not recognized by the public as part of French society. Instead, one discriminates them further. In the French public, the Rroma exist only in the form of visible immigrants from Eastern Europe. The Rroma who have been living integrated in France for generations, are not seen by the media. According to Guerra they are still victims of racism and discrimination: “There are also several hundred thousand Roma who are French citizens. We are the object of racism and discrimination. But our situation is better than that of our immigrant brothers and sisters whom the French state continues to exclude. Racism against Roma is fed by widespread stereotypes. According to the national commission into human rights 85 percent of French people think Roma exploit their children. The idea of French national identity also plays a role. The true French person is supposed to speak French not regional languages, for example, and to be settled rather than travelling. And the economic crisis has seen things get worse. That’s true of racism in general, but particularly anti-Roma racism.” Moreover, Viviane Reding criticized that the Rroma have repeatedly been used as scapegoats for social ills in the French election campaign, when politicians did not want to talk about more relevant topics. Guerra expresses his disappointment about the fact that the political parties and politicians, from the right as well as from the left, were not reliable in respecting the rights of the Rroma and to come to their defence. At the end, he calls for the concentration of the various civil rights movements and a special dedication to the betterment of the situation of the Rroma: “In the last few years new anti-racist movements have developed, including Roma movements. We are working towards a Festival of Gypsy Insurrection to celebrate the revolt of Roma people in the Birkenau Nazi concentration camp on 16 May 1944. People on the receiving end of racism have taken the initiative and created “specialised” movements against Islamophobia, anti-black racism, etc. These movements are at the stage of getting to know one another. To succeed in their just struggle they will need to coordinate. Roma organisations take part in these movements and we attempt to play a role in bringing them together.” By such a movement, it could perhaps at last be made clear to the majority population that the Rroma have been living among them for generations, invisible and integrated and that they should be allowed to display their identity publicly and proudly without being discriminated.

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30.08.2013 Rroma Debate in France

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Dahman (2013) discusses the one sided presentation of history of Rroma in France. Important chapters on the social exclusion of Rroma are not worked out or only very poorly presented by the French society at large. One such example are the anthropometric passports they had to carry since 1912 which facilitated their identification and delivery to the Nazi regime by the Vichy government. Another one is the 1969 introduction of a passport and the fact they had to report every six months to a police station. This controversial legislation was only repealed in 2012. The dominant historical representation of Rroma in France is one of non-existence or of distorted or false representation. This should change now as well as into the future.

Midi Libre (2013) criticises the ongoing evictions of informal Rroma camps in France. The circular from the summer of 2012, which called for a more organised and humane approach to evictions, such as the timely information of those affected or the provision for alternative accommodation places, has been as good as not at all applied. In fact, the massive evictions of settlements resulted in a forced nomadism, which historically was also often mistaken for the real life of the Rroma. The frequent expulsions also hampers the integration of Rroma, an intended side effect or maybe not. Many politicians reproach the Rroma their lack of willingness to integrate. The irony of this debate lies the fact that there is an effective impediment to integration all the while, while inclusion preached.

De Montvalon and Vincent (2013) highlight a radicalisation of the coverage on Rroma. The newest zenith of this tendency is the presentation of the magazine “Valeurs actuelles” with the provocative title, bordering on defamation “Roma, l’overdose” [Rroma, the overdose]. The Socialist Party reacted to this latest provocation with the demand and constatation, that a decided action is required xenophobia in France. The chronology of this radicalization goes back to the EU accession of Romania in 2007, after which, Nicolas Sarkozy, massively strengthened the migration policy in France, in particular against the Rroma. Vincent and De Montvalon identify these policies as being ineffective. On the contrary, according to statistics on the contrary, these policies led to more criminality among Rroma in France. But even with the change of power of the conservative UMP, the Social Democratic Party under François Hollande, there was no real paradigm shift in the policies towards Rroma in France. Rather, Interior Minister Manuel Valls has continued the evictions policies and even intensified them. In the political discourse, there is still the wrong representation that Rroma do not want to integrate, that they do not want to settle down (although most are Rroma settled) and that these behaviours are part of their culture. These tales are propagated and kept alive both by the right and by the left.

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19.07.2013 «Just the Wind» highlights Anti-Rroma Pogroms in Hungary

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Bence Fliegauf film “Just the Wind”, which won a Silver Bear at the 2012 Berlinale, currently runs since the 18th July of this year in German cinemas. The film explores the marginalization of Rroma by the Hungarian majority society, which in the case of the story – based on true events – led to the racist murder of several Rroma families. Rother (2013) of the FAZ interpreted the film as a plea for the right of existence of Rroma: “’Csak a szél’ is not the first film from Hungary, which deals with the fate of the Rroma or, as we say here, Cigány. While formerly the integration stood at the centre, as in one of the best known examples, in Pál Schiffer documentary movie “Gyuri Cseplö” from 1978, it seems the situation has gone so far now that movies have to defend the mere right of existence of these citizen.”

Assheuer (2013) interprets the film as an indictment of a latent state racism, which deems Rroma to be outside of the law and so they deliver into the hands of racist mobs. For these economically-racists arguments, Rroma are just useless bodies that do not contribute to the increase of national wealth: “The moment where the state singles Rroma out of the universe of civil rights, he declares them to be outlaws – he delivers them to the hatred of the society allows them to be shot as Misu, the errant pig, in the forest. […] Fascism therefore does not mean that the state built camps. It means that it takes the Rroma the right to have rights, and leaves them to the mob.”

Taszman (2013) emphasizes that the film became a political issue prior to its presentation at the Berlin Film Festival. The Hungarian Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, and the Secretariat of State for social integration issued a leaflet handed out to journalist, which represented the attitude of the Hungarian society and the Hungarian state towards Rroma as being open-minded. The letter repeatedly stressed the massive efforts of the Hungarian government made to successfully integrate Rroma.

Schnelle (2013) describes the film as an allegory about the omnipresent fear of something that is not visible. The invisible in this case is represented by the sudden arrival of the murderers, which, while the Rroma family indeed suspects will happen, cannot be articulated exactly. The father of the family now dwells in Canada, which one would like to follow on as soon as possible. Schnelle notes: “Fliegauf hardly tells of actual events. It is more of a film centred quite directly on fear. The family, threatened by racist terror and abandoned by a silent majority, is trying to survive the day after the last attack. And in the evening, as darkness falls over the village, one moves in bed together even more closely than usual.”

Krings (2013) describes the film as an oppressive portrait of repressed social reality: “Bence Fliegauf created a tremendously haunting film with “Just the Wind”, a laconic drama that accuses simply by showing a social reality that is often overlooked in Europe. Of course, such a film is no pleasure, though he builds tension like only a few thriller can. It is the cold power of horror. It is also about what Europe has to hide.”

Peitz (2013) sees the film as a portrait of people who were declared outlaws and must constantly reckon with death. In this “Tropic of Fear,” as it was called by the jury of the Berlinale, only extreme restraint and going for invisibility offers some protection: “[The film] is a snapshot from the lives of vulnerable people, almost unbearable du to fear. Bence Fliegauf glossed over nothing, many a Rrom in the film breaks his back with had work , some are just broken existences. But you can see the causes of the destruction, can feel the pogrom atmosphere with one’s hands. “There is no political film in Hungary, no more socially committed cinema” the director stated in a recent interview, self-critical of his own profession.”

Rebhandl (2013) emphasizes that the film genuinely shows the transition between nature and civilization, institutions, and vulnerability and tries to show, in which social atmosphere  ideological murders can happen: “A few weeks ago, a news went through the press that the Hungarian case against four men who allegedly killed six Roma in 2008 and 2009 is not progressing. They are still sitting in custody and whether there will be a process is unclear. “Just the Wind” leads a compelling indictment in a process that goes far beyond juridical concerns.”

Sources:

  • Assheuer, Thomas (2013) Und am Abend bist du tot. In: Die Zeit online vom 18.7.2013.
  • Krings, Dorothee (2013) eklemmendes Roma-Drama “Just the Wind”. In: RP online vom 18.7.2013.
  • Peitz, Christiane (2013) Menschenjagd als Spielfilmthema. In: Der Tagesspiegel online vom 17.7.2013.
  • Rebhandl, Bert (2013) In der Hitze des Tages. In: TAZ online vom 18.7.2013.
  • Rother, Hans-Jörg (2013) Der lange Lauf dieses Tages. In: Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung online vom 18.7.2013.
  • Schnelle, Josef (2013) Brillantes Gesellschaftsporträt: Benedek Fliegaufs Kinofilm “Just the Wind” über Roma in Ungarn. In: Deutschlandfunk online vom 18.7.2013.
  • Taszman, Jörg (2013) Ungarns Angst vor der eigenen Realität. In: Die Welt online vom 18.7.2013. 
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07.06.2013 The Khamoro Festival in Prague

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Schultheis (2013) writes about the Khamoro Festival in Prague. With concerts and lectures, the festival fights against prejudice, against one-sided reporting, segregation in schools and the exclusion from the economy. The economic crisis further reinforces racism. The closure of factories after the fall of Communism led to a strengthening of segregation. More and more young well-educated Rroma put poverty-linked stereotypes into question. Rroma representatives criticise in particular that most Rroma programs are initiated by non-Rroma. Gabriela Hrabaňová of the Rroma network Ergo flatly states: “We need more Rroma expertise and Rroma participation. For the last 20 years, those affected have not been involved in the planning of Roma projects. For example, in 2012 at the European Roma Platform there were only two Rroma out of 29 speakers. This is if we were to speak of women’s emancipation and leave women outside.”

Source:

  • Schultheis, Silja (2013) Festival Khamoro: Zur aktuellen Lage der Roma in Tschechien. In: hagalil online vom 4.6.2013. 
Czech Republic News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

31.05.2013 Rroma in the Czech Republic: Anti-Rroma Pogroms in Duchvok

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Neumann (2013) reports about an anti-Rroma rally in Duchvoc, in the North Bohemian part of the Czech Republic. After a Czech couple was attacked by a group of Rroma, around 800 people protested against the Rroma in the Republic. According to Neumann, the pogrom is reminiscent of riots that happened in the same place two years ago. At that time a dispute between adolescents led to massive violence that could not be prevented by the authorities. Neumann assesses the situation as follows: “Experts have repeatedly pointed out that the situation since the events in Zipfel has not significantly changed. At any time, in any place in the Czech Republic, widespread antipathy can erupt into open violence against Roma. Conversely, long-term unemployment and the getthoisation of life for Rroma make for an uncontrollable social powder keg.” He looks in particular the risk of renewed exploitation of this situation by extreme right-wing groups.

Zimmermann (2013) provides information on Czech students aged 12 to 15 years views on ethnic diversity. The company Scio made a study of the students’ behaviour and tested it amongst other with the game “Multipolis”, which through role-plays allows insight into the situation of other ethnic groups. The conclusion of the study was sobering: A third of the students surveyed do not want to be friends with a Rrom. About 40 percent would even actively participate in a protest march against Roma. Among other reasons, the study criticized the reductionist views which are presented to children in their own families, in the media and in school. But it also points out to how deeply rooted social values ​​and attitudes are, and what weight social conformity has when it comes to questions of acceptance. A sobering finding. Zimmermann commented: “Students could also determine how they imagined an ideal friend. They were able to choose from a series of images and descriptions. The result was that most of the youth decided against people with a different skin colour, against overweight and against nerds. Therefore, the most important factor to respondents was as little deviation from the norm.”

Kachlíkova (2013) reported on the Khamoro Rroma festival in Prague. The festival focuses on musical entertainment, but also shows movies and organises discussion events on social issues such as active integration. Successfully integrated Rroma are to offer the younger generation insight in their work in national and international institution and thus motivate them for their own future.

Sources:

  • Kachlíková, Markéta (2013) Roma-Festival „ Khamoro“ feiert 15. Geburtstag. In: Radio Praha vom 28.5.2013.
  • Neumann, Steffen (2013) Angst vor Ausschreitungen gegen Roma. In: Sächsische Zeitung vom 31.5.2013.
  • Zimmermann, Marco (2013) Starke Abneigung gegen Roma bei tschechischen Schülern. In: Radio Praha vom 31.5.2013.  
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17.05.2013 Rroma Debate in Germany

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Schupelius (2013) is critical of the “Action Plan for the integration of foreign Roma” proposed by the Senator for Integration Dilek Kolat (SPD). Kolat worked together with several research groups in recent months to define steps for a successful integration of immigrant Rroma. Among the recommended measures one finds tenant counselling, promoting enrolment of Rroma children in school, prevention of violence and the psychological support for prostitutes. The action plan will very likely not be implemented due to lack of funds. Schupelius criticized the months of work of the working groups under Kolat, whose catalogue of measures, being obvious, does not justifythe required research time.

RBB (2013) reports on the planned shelter for 22 Rroma families in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Because the owner of the designated property does not share the politicians’ plans, the projected emergency housing did not come to be. The Integration Commissioner Monika Lüke accused the leaders to have acted clumsily in selecting the locality and to have presented the decision to the district authorities as a fait accompli.

Krampitz (2013) discusses the work of Duisburg’s pastor Dieter Herberth. He works for the successful integration and acceptance of immigrant Rroma. He sees the immigrants from Southeast Europe as poverty migrants who see no future in their homeland. Those who find any work, even modestly paid, tend to stay in their country. He sees the idea that immigration exists solely to benefit from social services social funds as flawed. “Only people in difficult social circumstances come to NRW (North Rhine Westphalia).” Herberth requests the residents more tolerance towards Rroma. Integration does not happen overnight. The immigrants are often members of Gurbets group who is be particularly discriminated against in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Steeger (2013) gives information on a Rroma celebration in Neukölln. The “Herdelezi”, a festival in honour of Saint George and the patron saint of Rroma, was celebrated with lots of music and enthusiasm. It was organized by the youth organization Foro Amaro, an organisation where Rroma and Gadje are working together and committed to a tolerant, non-racist society. Herdelezi is celebrated by both Muslim and Orthodox Christian Roma all over the Balkan.

Sources:

  • Krampitz, Martin (2013) Pfarrer wirbt um Verständnis für Roma in Duisburg-Bergheim. In: Der Westen vom 13.5.2013.
  • RBB (2013) Notaufnahme für Roma-Familien nicht in Charlottenburg. In: RBB online vom 14.5.2013.
  • Schupelius, Gunnar (2013) Pläne für Roma-Familien sind unbezahlbar. In: BZ Berlin vom 12.5.2013.
  • Steeger, Gesa (2013) Balkan-Pop gegen Vorurteile. In: TAZ vom 12.5.2013. 
Hungary News Eastern Europe News Western Europe

05.04.2013 Rroma in Hungary

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The film “Csak a szél” (Just the Wind) by Bence Fliegauf thematises the increasing racism against Rroma in Hungary, why does not shy at physical violence. At the centre of the movie is a real series of attacks that occured between 2008 and 2009 and which killed 55 Rroma. Right-wing extremists set fire to Rroma houses at night and shot the Rroma fleeing from the fire. The protagonists in the film are the children of a Rroma family and each deals differently with the rampant hatred. While the sister tries to ignore the daily taunts and normally goes to school, the brother stays away from school and remains holed up in a hideout. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival 2012 and is running this week in the Salzburg cinemas.

Newsat (2013) reported on the plans of Hungarian nightclubs to introduce a 10% quota for minorities such as the Rroma. The Office for National and Ethnic Minorities is undertaking a referendum against this racist law project.

Source:

  • Newsat (2013) Roma-Quoten in Lokalen? In: Newsat vom 31.3.2013.
  • Miedl, Magdalena (2013) „Just the Wind“: Ungarns Roma in Angst vor Rassisten. In: Salzburger Nachrichten vom 3.4.2013.
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