‘There is something wrong with her. She will either bring us great happiness or great shame.’ The statement by the midwife who brings Bronislawa Wajs into the world at the beginning of Papusza succinctly summarises the film. Papusza, as Wajs is better known, grew up to become the most famous Roma poet ever. But she died in 1987 in poverty after slowly going crazy with loneliness, rejected by the community that regarded her as a traitor.
Papusza follows the tragic life of the autodidact who was discovered in 1949 by Jerzy Ficowski. The nomadic life of the Roma had already been cruelly interrupted by two world wars and came to a climax as the communists forced them to settle. In stern black-and-white, the film describes a people that gets mangled between the wheels of world history. And it’s about a resilient individual who tries to escape fate but is mercilessly punished for that.
Film details
- Country of production
- Poland
- Year
- 2013
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2014
- Length
- 131"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
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