City of the Roma (La Cité des Roms)
Plus post-film discussion: with Jeremie Gilbert (Senior Lecturer in Human Rights Law, Middlesex University) and Zsuzsanna Ardo
Tickets: £7.50 online (£9.50 full price) / Barbican Members - £6.50 online (£7.50 full price) / Concessions £7.50The box office has now closed for this film.
In the ghetto of Nadezhda in the heart of Bulgaria, twenty thousand Roma live enclosed behind a concrete wall.
Every day, teaching student Angel Yichaliev rounds up Roma children to take them to school, partly in an attempt to gradually integrate them with their Bulgarian counterparts, but partly because the Roma school doesn’t stretch much further than drawing lessons and singing.
We follow the life on one such schoolgirl, Elen, hear the views of a bar owner and his wife, and watch Angel’s obstinate efforts to integrate the Roma community into the majority Bulgarian society.
And then there’s the forthcoming election. In this fledgling democracy, the Roma have the right to vote – and all the candidates are out to buy their support.
Director: Frédéric Castaignède
Country: France
Length: 97 minutes
