"How I Became a Partisan": Vera Lacková's documentary about Romani partisans screened at Czech film festival
Yesterday a new documentary film by Vera Lacková, “How I Became a Partisan” (Jak jsem se stala partyzánkou), was scheduled to be screened at the Jihlava International Festival of Documentary Film (IFDF Ji.hlava), which is also streaming online. Many stories from the time of the Second World War are still untold, and some of them apparently will remain secrets forever.
One such story from the mosaic of such memories is that of the Romani partisans in the former Czechoslovakia. The director of this film is the granddaughter of one such forgotten partisan.
Lacková learned about her grandfather’s deeds when she was a child and her grandmother told her the stories of his adventures. The film is scheduled for general release on 11 November.
In the documentary, Lacková reveals, against the background of her own family history, the troubled destinies of four Romani partisans. Investigating them led her to discover facts that have never before been publicized and that tell the stories of people who, despite being of a different ethnic origin, managed to join the fight against evil.
Through interviews with descendants and eyewitnesses, and through archival research, the director introduces Romani people whose actions have grown beyond the borders of ethnic minority history and into the context of European history overall. During her investigations she runs into deeply-rooted prejudices about the Romani community, indifference to the Romani community, and hatred of the Romani community.
The filmmaker’s motivation is to break down the longstanding stereotype of Romani people as having just been victims during Nazism. She shows us Romani people whose deeds go beyond the framework of ethnic minority history to deservedly become part of European history.
Lacková is the director of the Media Voice production company. Through her output she combats discrimination and the stereotypical perceptions of minorities.
