Cobra Gypsies

Concrete Pharaohs

Welcome to the picturesque world of the Kaldarash Roma – a closed community of no more than 1 million people all over the world. 'Concrete Pharaohs' take us on a journey into the lifestyle and traditions of the most hidden and intriguing Roma communities. A charismatic Gypsy baron will walk us through his stories and his new house. We will learn the hot trends in Roma tombstone design. We will go down into the underground homes of African granite, furnished with beds, wardrobes, stereos and a charged cell phone – a direct line to the other world. A celebration of life and afterlife in all of their manifestations.

Pretty Dyana

An intimate look at Gypsy refugees in a Belgrade suburb who make a living by transforming Citroen´s classic 2cv and Dyana cars into Mad Max-like recycling vehicles, which they use to collect card-board, bottles and scrap metal. These modern horses are much more efficent than the cart-pushing competition, but even more important, they also mean freedom, hope and style for their crafty owners. Even the car batteries are used as power generators in order to get some light, watch TV and recharge mobiles ! Almost an alchemist´s dream come true ! But police doesn´t always find these strange vehicles funny... Pretty Dyana is a very funny documentary, but sad in a way... " If Mitic had focused only on the terrible misery these people live in, the film would have been unbearable. Instead, you never know whether you should cry after you laugh, or the other way around " Sara Hultmanm, Goteborg Film Festival

The Gypsies of Svinia

Moved by a sense of outrage, David Scheffel, a Canadian anthropologist, is determined to help the impoverished Roma (Gypsies) rebuild their community in the eastern Slovakian village of Svinia. So-called “white” Svinia is a picturesque, typical Slovak village with well-kept homes, gardens, a store and a school. Some 300 metres past the last home is “black” Svinia, where the Roma live in squalid tenement blocks and one-room huts of sticks and mud-with no clean water or sewage facilities and with little hope of employment. Many Svinians, whose homes and gardens are regularly burglarized by the desperate Roma, have lost all patience and sympathy. Throughout Eastern Europe, the painful transition from communism to democracy has relegated the Roma to the farthest, most grotesque margins of society. The Gypsies of Svinia is a testament to the firm resolve of Scheffel and the Roma to make things better.

Nous, les Gitans

Alberto Spadolini, filmmaker and choreographer, dances to traditional Andalusian music. He pays tribute to the gypsy culture.

Loli Kali Shuba

Prominent Ukrainian/Italian documentary film director Oleksandr Balahura (most known for link) visits Roma neighborhoods and social events in Zakarpattia (Western Ukraine) and re-visits his earlier work, "Widow-Street", shot on same locations in 1991. He also screens "Widow-Street" to its characters, whom he meets again in 2013.

L'absent, dans le cœur de Piche

Piche, a bearded drag queen and rapper from a Gypsy community in Arles, rises from the rupture of her father cutting ties in adolescence to the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony. With her mother Nadia and twin brother Morgan by her side, she dares to defy norms and becomes a leading voice of the queer revolution.

Django Reinhardt, trois doigts de génie

FC Roma

A team of Romany football players try to overcome prejudice in this Czech documentary.

Gypsy Blood

Gypsy Blood examines the culture that Gypsy and Traveller fathers hand on to their children, which many non-gypsy view as overly violent, exploring its impact on two fathers and their young sons.

Alltid Fick Man Höra Jävla Zigenare

Ever since the first Roma people arrived in Sweden five hundred years ago, they have been discriminated against and persecuted. The lack of knowledge, invisibility and denial of the historical abuses that Roma have been exposed to is one of the many contributing causes of continued marginalization and vulnerability of Roma today. Here, the Roma tell of the abuses and persecutions they experienced during the 20th century. How it felt like as a child being constantly expelled from the camp, not infrequently in the middle of the night, with violence and under gunfire. Soraya Post from the traveling group tells how her mother, as a pregnant 23-year-old, was forced to abort her child in the seventh month. The reason: She was a "gypsy".

RYTMUS Housing Estate Dream

The film RYTMUS Housing Estate Dream took 8 years to create and closely documents the life of one of the most famous personalities of the Czech-Slovak music scene. Patrik "Rytmus" Vrbovský grew up in an ordinary family in a housing estate in Piešťany and, due to his Roma origin, he often encountered prejudice from his surroundings. Today, he releases albums in tens of thousands of copies, was a Superstar judge, and his videos have been viewed on the Internet by more than 200 million users. The film will also offer exclusive footage from family archives of videos and photographs, supported by personal testimonies from people from Rytmus' closest circle.

The Shutka Book of Records

A documentary about bizarre residents of Shutka, a Macedonian village built on the former city dump area. Shutka, where everyone is the champion of something. This film is a celebration of the culture, humor, spirit, oddities and idiosyncrasies of the Roma, one of the world's poorest and most persecuted peoples. Ultimately we are instructed in the celebration of life despite any and all circumstances - everyone is of value here.

Romazsaruk

Kenedi Goes Back Home

The first film in what would ultimately become Zilnik’s famed Kenedi trilogy follows street hustler Kenedi Hasani and his friend as they roam the streets of Serbia seeking Kenedi’s parents. Kenedi Goes Back Home is Zilnik’s account of the Roma people who were forced to flee from the war in the Balkans to Germany in the 1990s and who, ten years later, are forced against their will to return to Serbia. Zilnik shows the immigrants' lives in relation to the prevailing ideology shaped today by the borders between rich and poor and by the often-racist selection process that determines who will be accepted into Western Europe. In presenting the dilemmas and identifying the crises these people face, he appeals for a solution.

Gypsy Blood

Roma are an important part of Ukraine's population. There are quite a large number of them living in the country—between fifty and one hundred thousand. This documentary shows the peculiarities of the Gypsy people's life in modern society. You will see the stories of five Gypsy barons who will talk about the traditions of their people and reveal some secrets that were previously known only to the Roma.