Sunday 11. 10. 2026
INDUSTRY / SCREENING 12:00–13:30
Memory
TELEVIZNÍ INSTITUT, DOMINIKÁNSKÁ 11
SCREENING
WITH ILONA FERKOVÁ IN ATTENDANCE
Ilona Ferková – I Like to Laugh, I Like to Make Things Up
Director: Markéta Oddfish Nešlehová
Czech Republic, 2023, 17 min
Screening: Czech language, without English subtitles
She has experienced many different professions and life stories, yet her dreams continue to come true. She began writing in the 1980s, when she met Milena Hübschmannová. At the time, the future writer could hardly have imagined that she would one day write a short story – let alone many of them.
Today, Ilona Ferková is a member of the Romani writers’ club Paramisara and the Romani women’s group Manushe. She has published her own books and written countless short stories.
SCREENING
Ladislav Goral – To Be Free as a Bird
Director: Markéta Oddfish Nešlehová
Screening: Czech language, without English subtitles
“The only worldly justice is that we all have to die.” Ladislav Goral was a man who could say these words without bitterness. Perhaps because he had known since childhood just how cruel the world could be.
During the Second World War, he lost a large part of his family. Yet the poor Romani boy went on to become a Romani studies scholar, activist, musician, actor and one of the important voices in the post-revolutionary debate on minorities and democracy.
DISCUSSION
Who Gets to Tell the Story?
Documentary filmmaking does not take place only within film schools, television broadcasters and production companies. When it comes to minority issues, the non-profit sector can also become an important producer and initiator, enabling stories to emerge directly from communities and their lived experiences.
The portraits of Romani figures Ilona Ferková and Ladislav Goral, produced by the organisation Slovo 21, raise questions about what this path brings to the storytelling itself – and about who is given the opportunity to tell their own story.
Guest: Jelena Silajdžić, producer, Slovo 21
Industry / LECTURE 13:45 - 14:45
TELEVIZNÍ INSTITUT, DOMINIKÁNSKÁ 11
LECTURE
On the history of antigypsyism in feature films
PROGRAMME IN ENGLISH
Radmila Mladenova, Critical Film and Image Hub, Heidelberg University
Industry / Workshop 15:00 - 16:30
TELEVIZNÍ INSTITUT, DOMINIKÁNSKÁ 11
In cooperation with the Romani Filmmakers Network
WORKSHOP
Workshop: Building a Respectful Framework for the Representation of Romani Identity in Film and Television
PROGRAMME IN ENGLISH
Czechia, 2024, 50 min.
The workshop is part of a long-term process aimed at developing a practical methodological framework for the respectful representation of Roma and Sinti in film and visual culture. Building on research into antigypsyism and the long history of representations of Roma and Sinti on screen, it creates a space for shared reflection, critical discussion and the search for practical solutions.
The framework is not presented as a finished set of rules, but as a working tool that needs to be tested in the context of real filmmaking practice – from creative decision-making to institutional structures, production hierarchies and funding conditions, as well as everyday working processes. Participants are invited to engage with the framework both critically and constructively, drawing on their own professional experience and perspectives.
Working in pairs and small groups, participants will focus on individual sections of the framework. Together, they will examine where its principles work, what obstacles may arise when applying them in practice, and which perspectives, issues or recommendations still need to be added.
The aim is not merely to identify problematic areas, but to develop the framework collaboratively so that it can become a useful tool for filmmakers, producers, commissioners, dramaturges, educators and cultural institutions seeking ethical and responsible representation.
The workshop is led by producer and director Lisa Smith.
The workshop outcomes will directly contribute to the further development of the methodological framework and to broader efforts to support more accurate, sensitive and community-grounded representations of Roma and Sinti in film and visual culture.
Industry / Projekce s diskuzí 18:00 - 20:30
TELEVIZNÍ INSTITUT, DOMINIKÁNSKÁ 11
SCREENING
Rose dreams – 50th Anniversary Screening
Director: Dušan Hanák
Czechoslovakia, 1976, 81 min
Screening: Czech language with English subtitles
Rose Dreams is a bittersweet poetic story about the love between a young postman, Jakub, and a beautiful Romani girl. The village is small, everyone knows each other, and Jakub seems to be a natural part of every family’s life.
Jolana lives on the outskirts, in a Romani settlement, surrounded by her large family, many young children and everyday family responsibilities. But love cannot be commanded – not even when it is forbidden.
DISCUSSION
50 Years of Rose Dreams
For its time, Rose Dreams offers a remarkably diverse gallery of Romani female characters – from a temperamental mother and an emancipated office worker to Jolana, played by Iva Bittová, a young heroine at the centre of an almost Shakespearean love story.
Almost half a century later, Tereza Nvotová cast Iva Bittová in Nightsiren as a Romani woman and healer standing on the boundary between society and the world of magic.
Dialogue with famous Romani artist Iva Bittová will explore how portrayals of Romani women in Czech and Slovak cinema have changed over the past fifty years. Which archetypes and stereotypes persist, and when does a film character become a truly independent female protagonist?
Iva Bittová
Partneři festivalu 2026
