Romanians, despite being the largest minority in Europe
Growing up in Romania, whenever Alina Sherban saw Roma on television or in films, they were usually portrayed as villains or described as being in some exotic way. But this week, the Romanian actor and director is part of a cohort that fights against these stereotypes, joining forces with Romanian directors across Europe in a significant screening of seven films during the Seville European Film Festival. It's a job we did, not just about us, Sherban said. I grew up in a world where everything I heard about my community came from outside... The perspective is ultimately centered. Her film, I Matter, which tells the story of a young woman who keeps her Romanian identity in mind as she ages, was screened earlier this year as part of the spotlight section of the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award.
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Romanians, despite being the largest minority in Europe, are among the most disadvantaged and invisible in terms of our own art we create, said Bársony, who also heads the Romédia Foundation, an NGO that seeks to use historical, film and visual archives to strengthen Roma's self-representation and challenge prejudices. The result was a programme that provided an unprecedented picture of Europe's wealth, giving narrative sovereignty to an estimated 10-12 million Roma living across Europe, she said. Since the beginning of the silent film, the novelists have been placed in certain roles. These roles were largely passive and defined by the outer world. The films range from a Bársony documentary that follows a young man born in Germany to Roma parents and who is deported to Kosovo, to a film by Spanish director Jero de los Santos that explores queer and romance perspectives.
Especially in politics, there's a lot of people who can be racist against my
The exhibition also includes Smooth the Edges, by the Roman director Charles Newland, of Nottingham. It's a bit odd, Newland said, because it's the first film funded by the British Film Institute by a Romanian director with a Romanian producer and a Romanian cast. The short captures a dilemma that Newland described as common in Britain's Roma community: that of a young woman struggling to hide her past to avoid discrimination in the workplace. What's emerging is the tension in the change to be able to get rid of discrimination but at the cost of repressing some of it. The film also sought to interact with the inner world with which the Romanians in Britain were often forced to account, Newland said.
Especially in politics, there's a lot of people who can be racist against my group of people, but then on the same basis, when they're comfortable with the argument, refer to you as white, too, he said. Kind of, oh, they're just gypsies, they're expensive when it fits the agenda, but if it's an agenda to try to help, it's like, well, why do they need help because they're just white? So you're stuck between this rock and a hard place. By bringing together Roma directors from across Europe, this week's programme also offers a chance to counter what unfortunately has become a common thread in the lives of many Roma across the continent, Sherban said. As they say, the last acceptable form of racism is against Roma, she said. Being Roma for me, at least in the Romanian context, and for my generation, meant that you were somewhat inferior.
In this context, every decision she made in her film felt like an act of resistance, she said. I hope that in a few years, there will be 50 or 100 movies like mine. But since I was one of the first to bring this p
