Eu contez (I matter)

Rebeca, a young Roma girl, faces eviction from her orphanage as she is waiting for her father to be released from jail. Torn between hope and threat, she is forced to accept her identity and make it through life on her own.
She moves from the crippling fear of leaving the foster care centre to taking the step towards an independent life and taking control of her own rescue. From hiding from the world that she is an institutionalised Roma woman, to accepting her identity and revealing it to others.

Through this film I aim to build a bridge to a different understanding of the Roma minority, a perspective we all need. This film is based on my own story and will become the first feature film directed by a female Roma director in Romania.
There are more than 12 million Roma in Europe, the largest ethnic minority and, according to statistics, still the most discriminated against.
We have very few opportunities to see Roma in films living complex human experiences, far from the stereotypes. The lack of “human” stories about Roma creates a lack of possibility not only to get to know these people, but even to perceive them as people you can empathise with. On the other hand, Roma are denied the possibility to see themselves represented in the outside world in a complex way. Lack of knowledge about their own culture, systemic inequality and discrimination lead to inferiority complexes and self-hatred.
As a Roma woman, I have faced many difficulties that have shaped my world, going through poverty, discrimination and even eviction from my childhood home. It took me a long time to let go of the shame of being Roma, accept my ethnic identity and embrace my culture. But it took me even longer to be able to speak freely about what the experience of institutionalisation meant to me. The stories I have told over the past 15 years, whether through theatre or short films, have aimed to present the humanity of the Roma, to create and claim space for our stories from a Roma perspective.

PRODUCTION 1:
microFILM - Ada Solomon, Carla Fotea
23A Gramont Street
040182 Bucharest, Romania
Tel: +40 212524867
E-mail: microfilm.romania@gmail.com
Web: http://www.microfilm.eu
Social Media: @microfilmromania - Instagram, microfilmromania - Facebook

PRODUCTION 2:
2PilotsFilmproduction - Harry Flöter, Jörg Siepmann
Maybachstraße 109a
D-50670 Cologne, Germany
Tel: +49 221 9130153
E-mail: harry@2pilots.de
Web: www.2pilots.de
Social Media: @2pilots_filmproduction – Instagram, @cgncinecollective – Instagram

PRODUCTION 3:
Frakas Productions – Cassandre Warnauts, Jean-Yves Roubin
130 Boulevard de la Sauvenière
B-4000 Liege, Belgium
Tel: +32 485 47 49 41
E-mail: sylvain@frakas.be
Web: http://www.frakas.be

PRODUCTION 4:
Lemming Film Belgium - Dries Phlypo, Leontine Petit, Erik Glijnis
Adolf Bayensstraat 134n,
9040 Gent, Belgium
Tel: +32 92401000
E-mail: info@lemmingfilm.com
Web: www.lemmingfilm.com
Social Media: @lemmingfilm - Instagram

WORLD SALES:
Pluto Film - Daniela Cölle
Lehmbruckstr. 1, 10245, Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 30 98 43 75 87
e-mail: info@plutofilm.de, daniela@plutofilm.de
Web: www.plutofilm.de
Social Media: Pluto Film | Berlin - facebook / Pluto Film - Instagram, YouTube, linkedin

PRESS OFFICE:
Marijana Harder
Tel: +49 177 7942871
E-mail: mail@marijanaharder.com