Educational Media Reviews Online

The Roma, pejoratively called gypsies, came into central Europe from India over a thousand years ago. A little understood, nomadic ethnic people of some 12 million, the Roma have suffered centuries of persecution. Their distinctive culture, language and appearance, combined with their resistance to assimilation have served to make them a target for European persecution, and, prior to the middle of the 19th century, enslavement. This revealing documentary highlights the Roma’s history during the twentieth century and their future in the twenty-first.

The Roma are “Europe’s largest minority, the least understood, and the most persecuted.” The only other racial group besides the Jews who were targeted for total extermination by Hitler’s, about 1.5 million Roma died in the Holocaust. Today, a decade after the fall of communism their life in Romania has seriously deteriorated. In a pogrom in Hadareni, Romania, recreated in monochromatic film footage, fourteen homes burned and three died, but the victims have yet to receive justice. In one village families have been settled in an abandoned chicken coop, in another a hundred families with fifty babies are living in an abandoned building.

Thousands have fled, many to Italy, in hope of a better life. The Italian government, however, classifies the Roma as nomads and provides no social services. Roma live in appalling squalor—Casilino 700, a Roma camp, is home to 1400 people and has no electricity, running water or garbage pick-up. Among the horrifying images in this film is that of a child playing by pounding nails into a discarded auto battery.

Without education and training the Roma lack the resources to defend themselves, and there is a certain streak of fatalism among them. As one says, “the truth is we are hated around the world, and I realize that this springs from history, from the past, when we were slaves.” This documentary, which has a very strong Roma perspective, does an excellent job of calling attention to the plight of the Roma and would provide an excellent starting point to a broader discussion of the problems of ethnic minorities. On a minor point, the subtitles should have been printed in a larger type font to enhance ease of viewing in a classroom setting.

Awards

• Gold Plaque, Chicago International Television Awards
• Amnesty International Film Festival, Salt Lake City
• Amnesty International Film Festival, Vancouver