Voices!

By Natalia Kossowska 

 

If you have ever taken a class with Anne, you know about the magic of unexpected gifts - an unexpected bonus that comes with doing something. This blog post is about my unexpected gift: joining a Rolling Film Festival's opening ceremony.

 

It was Tuesday, the 20th of June, our Zoom day. It was much needed after a week of understanding Kosovo, its people, and making the most out of every hour we were left with - at least I thought so. It all felt quite dull and impersonal after all the in-person talks we’ve had with the local organizations and activists. On the one hand, I enjoyed the stillness of lying in bed with my lovely roommates Alexia and Milan and following the calls. It truly brought me back to my nostalgic boarding high school days. But on the other hand, I was craving more of the talks, visits, and excitement that previous meetings had evoked in me. That day, I heard from Alexia and Milan, who heard it from someone else, that there was supposed to be a Roma film festival that evening. And oh it got me excited. It was supposed to be right before my pre-meeting presentation with the Kosovar Roma organization, which was a perfect opportunity to find out more about Kosovar Roma. 

 

Roma people are very close to my heart. I volunteered with a Roma community in Ukraine as a teen. I lived right next to a Roma settlement as a kid and secretly sneaked out of my house to play with them despite my parents' prohibition. And most importantly, one of my closest high school friends happens to be Roma who is doing amazing activist work for the inclusion of Roma people in Slovakia. 

 

Therefore I knew how exceptional it is to have a Roma film festival: a platform that through art amplifies the voices of the most marginalized and oppressed ethnic group in Europe.

There was only one problem: the festival was taking place during our dinner and dinners are an integral part of our trip. That’s when we reflect, laugh, unwind, or dig deeper into our thoughts and observations from our daily experiences. But as we say in Polish taki problem to nie problem [Eng. such a problem is not a problem at all] and with a bit of pre-dinner snacks and others' understanding, Alexia, Milan, Marianne, Levin, and I proceeded to Kino Armata for the opening ceremony. As soon as we sat in the seats with the promotional materials and headphones for simultaneous translation, we heard a familiar voice from the seats in front of us. What are you doing here? asked Phillipe, UNMIK’s Political Affairs Officer, who had joined us earlier in the week for one of the dinners at Soma Book Station. He happened to be there as a UNMIK representative (and later invited us for drinks with his UN friends - but that's a story for another time).

 

The opening ceremony started with the performance of Music 4 All, a music school from Plementina that provides a safe space for children and youth of all ethnicities so that they can discover their talents and develop their musical and artistic skills. Later, after the opening speeches, we saw a short movie Proud Roma by Pablo Vega. It is a touching and emotional manifesto-like movie that calls for the liberation of Roma people from perpetual inequality, racism, unemployment, discrimination from education, and poverty. It also calls for a pan-national upheaval that needs to be brought about by Roma people to make their voices finally heard. 

 

I have never seen such a Roma representation as I witnessed during that movie screening. As I was watching the short movie, I thought about every Roma person I had met in my life. I wish that movies about Roma soon will no longer be displayed at a film festival with the motto “voiceless voices”. I wish the next motto will be centered around terms like perseverance, self-determination, and freedom. I hope that in the following decades, it will be the Roma people narrating their past, present, and future rather than us, Europeans, who either want to help Roma and perceive them as a poor, disadvantaged ethnic group, or disregard their human rights and prevent them from living a dignified life. 

 

My unexpected gift is not only joining that festival but also reflecting on my positionality in the context of my past volunteering thanks to a long conversation with Philippe. This is truly the most important learning from the trip and I hope that I get to do something bigger with it - but not now, a bit later. 

(Here's a photo of me and my lovely roommates, Alexia and Milan.)