Dir: Kate Ryan
By: Daria Landal
Welcome Nowhere, a documentary feature film debut by an American director Kate Ryan, has recently been sweeping international film festivals around US and Europe. Produced in Sofia, Bulgaria and narrated by Ethan Hawke, the film centers on a Roma community forced to live in unthinkably poor conditions in the boxcars. In April 2001, their homes were destroyed to allow room for a new supermarket; the Roma were promised new homes in six months. The film picks up about ten years later, only to reveal that their expectations never came true.
This is a timely documentary film, released just months after a scandalous case of a ‘blonde angel’ Maria sparked a wave of prejudices on Roma people across European media. The film opens with everyday Bulgarians sharing their thoughts on the Roma, which resonate only too well with general public: ‘Their genes are different. They don’t share our values. They don’t want to work. I’m afraid of them’.
Reality, however, proves to be much less black and white.
The story of this particular Bulgarian Roma community is all too common in Eastern Europe: they have always remained on the margin of European society. The narrator tells us that there are 12 millions of Roma who live in modern Europe, still as outsiders. It is astonishing to learn that Roma never succeeded in assimilating since they first came to Europe in 12th century. Another revelation of the film is that the collapse of Soviet Union resulted in catastrophic decline of living standards for the Roma. Back then, they spent at least 8 years at school and had jobs with decent wages. Today, most of them never learn literacy and don’t stand a chance of getting a job.
Welcome Nowhere provides an illuminating, in-depth analysis that challenges the way society looks at Roma. It prominently features Roma side, giving voice to the Roma families that struggle to live in misery. The documentary follows a mother of three, sweeping the streets and hoping for a better future for her children; a mother who has to decide whether or not her daughter’s gangrene leg should be amputated; a family of five that has to survive on 65 dollars a week. A detailed depiction of the Roma community, Welcome Nowhere is at times almost painful to watch: seeing people in a hellhole just outside the beautiful city of Sofia is horrifying. One comes to realize what tremendous amount of pain, hatred and discrimination the Roma face throughout their whole lives.
The documentary presents all sides involved in the situation and features an impressive array of the interviews with officials (including two mayors of Sofia and ex-president of Bulgaria Zhelyu Zhelev), scientists, experts and activists. In the end, Welcome Nowhere crew went out of their way to give a fair picture of the complex situation. Rather than portraying Roma people just as the victims of the circumstances, they took it all to a much wider scope, looking at opposing opinions to find out why society is so eager to ignore Roma and their problems.
This vicious cycle needs to be broken; it’s time the authorities stopped the segregation so that the Roma could become a part of solution, not part of the problem; if people continue to treat them with so much hate, they will never have a chance to change. Those are the powerful messages Welcome Nowhere addresses to the society in a call for a cultural shift.
Towards the end of the film, we learn that after 11 years of fruitless bids to the authorities, the Roma are finally moved to the new homes.
Watch the trailer here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNBWuv3EZw?rel=0]
What a beautiful and powerful review! Thanks, Daria Landal
A very topical and a very truthful review! Thank you, Daria Landal!
Daria Landal, thank you for this detailed review! It helps to get the general idea of the film.
Very interesting to read! Thank you, Daria Landal