44.2
CONTENTS
DOSSIER
Romanies and Cinematic Representation
Dina Iordanova, Guest Editor
Editorial
Anikó Imre
Screen Gypsies
Edouard Chiline
The Celluloid Drom: Romani Images in Russian Cinema
Robin Curtis
The Stranger in a City Filled with Strangers: Moholy-Nagy’s Urban Gypsies
Yosefa Loshitzky
Quintessential Strangers: The Representation of Romanies and Jews in Some Holocaust Films
Susan Tebbutt
Between Distance and Proximity: Film Images and After-Images of the Genocide of the Romanies
Anat Zanger
Desire Ltd: Romanies, Women, and Other Smugglers in Carmen
Jasmine Dellal
Romani Images: A Film Director’s Diary
REVIEWS
Romani-Themed Films
Nevena Dakovic
Skupljai perja / I Even Met Happy Gypsies
Ljudmila Cvikova
Ruovésny / Pink-tainted Dreams
Vladislav Miji
Ko To Tamo Peva / Who Is Singing Over There?
Carrie Tarr
Les Princes / The Princes
David Altheer
Angelo My Love
Ewa Mazierska
Diably, Diably / Devils, Devils
Laura Rascaroli
Un’anima Divisa In Due / A Soul Divided in Two
Palma Zlateva
Tchernata Lyastovitsa / The Black Swallow
Gene Walz
The Gypsies of Svinia
David Altheer
American Gypsy
EDITORIAL
I took up editing this special issue on images of Romanies in international cinema, relying on my expertise in Eastern European and Balkan film, thinking that it was within this group that most Romani-themed films abound. It did not take long to realize, however, that the scope of this project was much bigger. In fact, it was huge. So, in the course of putting this issue together, I had the chance to learn (and continue learning) about an incredibly rich and versatile variety of films, which, in one way or another, feature Romanies. It transpired that films representing Romanies originated from a much wider territory than I originally had imagined, stretching far beyond the countries of Europe and North America and including cinematic works from Egypt, Argentina, India, Iran and many more. It soon became clear that Romanies have been appearing on the silver screen since the first days of cinema, in a range of films by well-known pioneers and as early as 1896.
The original call for papers for this special issue of Framework invited authors to look into cinema’s role in creating (and maintaining) the exotic image of the Gypsy, into instances where film had counteracted the racism and media vilification that often dominate public perceptions of Romanies, and into exploring the extent to which the rich Romani heritage was acknowledged by cinema. I wanted to see how the discursive dynamics of Romany representation and self-representation was crossing the context of other discourses of minority representation (e.g. Chicano/a, Native Indian, African-American), how cinema had approached the themes of Romani history (if at all), and what the role of feature, documentary and ethnographic film played in analyzing the Romani predicament and in addressing its social roots, diaspora, migration, and social marginality.
So, were these concerns addressed in the articles that I received, and to what extent? When looking at the materials included in this issue, it seems to me that they have started unraveling some of these complex issues, especially in two areas. First, they begin to sketch the complex historiography of the uniquely transnational phenomenon of the Gypsy films. Second, they bring together two discourses: one on representation (from film and media studies) and one on Romani culture and history (from ethnology and area studies).
It is not by chance that I am using Framework’s pages for such discursive convergence: as a journal ‘committed to publishing articles from an interdisciplinary and global perspectives,’ Framework is uniquely positioned among the range of film and media journals. It not only has recognized the need ‘for the elaboration of a transnational critical-theoretical discourse,’ as associate editor Paul Willemen states, but, also, it was one of the first journals to encourage and endorse work in the transnational dimensions of minority representation.
I have included contributions that range in approach, from close textual analysis (Tarr, Mazierska), through film historiography (Curtis, Chiline) and studies into cinema’s role in re-shaping the mainstream historical discourse (Tebutt, Loshitzky), to explorations relying on the post-colonial theoretical framework (Imre, Zanger). In addition, a number of reviews discuss both old and recent features and documentaries, from various countries and genres, representing Romanies. In commissioning these reviews, I followed the conviction that the study of Romani representation in international cinema could benefit greatly from the encouragement of some straightforward scholarship, one that would simply describe and critique the films and thus map out a phenomenon larger and more versatile than is usually believed. Wrapping up the work on this project, I believe that the issue succeeds in offering at least a rough sketch of the transnational territory of cinematic representation of Romanies.
- DIna Lordanova, Guest Editor
