Close to you: On location in Hungary
219 views · Published 19 November 2012 · 5:27 · Indexed 1 November 2026
Channel: European Parliament · 2012 · News & Politics
The LUX Prize is open to the public. The EP's prize for cinema has stepped outside the institution. The three winning films will be shown this year in all EU countries. In Brussels Hungarian MEP Kinga Göncz slipped among the Belgian audience. Today's film, 'Just the Wind' by Hungarian Bence Fliegauf, was inspired by a series of murders and attacks in 2008 and 2009 against Roma families. Homes of Roma families were burned, and there were attacks, racist attacks, against Roma families and also killings, some where young children were killed. It was a real shock for the whole Hungarian community, Roma and non-Roma. And the film will speak about this time and the fear which is closely connected with it. This movie might be helpful in terms of understanding more of what is really happening with the Roma community, not just in Hungary, but in Central and Eastern Europe, where the proportion of Roma is quite high in many countries. EuroparlTV went to where the film was shot with the director himself. We chose this location for several reasons. It's just endless forest everywhere and that created the tension. Hello! So this is the room where the murder happens. The murderers came in here and Rio jumped out of this window. Wow! It's interesting, right? This was one and a half years ago, and that's the room where we shot the scene. The kids were sitting there, the TV was here, and the pillow fight went on everywhere. I didn't want to go for the original locations where the events happened, because in that area the mood of the people was almost like a civil war. My reasoning was to make a film which can provide an occasion to meditate on these questions. I'm talking about the hatred between the Romanies and the Hungarians. I gathered the filmmakers from Budapest and I gathered the Romanies from very different areas of Hungary. I wanted to have a common goal to achieve, because I really believe that if we can do this then the people are going to trust each other and that is what happened actually. It happened here. Bence Fliegauf takes us to meet the lead actress in his film, a Romani, like all his cast. Wow! I chose her because she's beautiful. Look at her. She's amazing. She was conscious of all the issues and on her face I saw this frustration which was very important for this role. They are not accepted, no matter what they do. It's no good if you work and it's even worse if you don't. If you do something you like, such as play music or whatever, it's just the same. So whatever you are like, you won't be accepted by society, because you are Romani. You can be made of gold but you won't be accepted. You would like to have work. -Yes, no matter what. I like cleaning, for example... So what we see here is a very good example, because in this place there are Romanies and Hungarians and they are... You can see the interaction between two ethnic groups. That's working very well because these people learn it very quickly. There is no such thing as a bad race. Well, yes, everybody wanted to beat me at school, and they used to call me 'smelly gipsy'. But you do not seem to be Romani. Or they looked at you and told you that you are a Romani? Yes. But why is that? Did you speak Romani? Yes, I did, with my brothers. I still think that the key is education. If you give an opportunity for the Romanies and Gypsies to have a good education, that will help a lot. Those who are into sport, music, science or whatever can integrate into society. But unless that is financed by the European Union it's not going to happen, for sure. What does our MEP say? It is true we now have the framework strategy for Roma integration throughout Europe, and it names education as one of the most important aspects of integration. But education is not enough. It's also very important to improve the situation in housing, employment, and also access to healthcare, access to social services. We have to do something urgently. EuroparlTV video ID: bed3e7f5-6696-4f19-83d7-a10900d02d04
