Infamy: Rap and Romani family ties in a drama on Netflix

While watching “Infamy”, I felt a kind of ambivalence that has yet to leave me. On the one hand, I’m glad director Anna Maliszewska set the story of this adolescent girl in a Romani milieu even though in Poland, a country of 38 million, there are just 40,000 Romani people and the “Romani subject” is not a dominant theme of Polish society. The entire visual aspect of the series succeeds, the beautiful cinematography by Wojciech Zieliński and the brisk editing underscore its professional workmanship. It’s nice to watch.

On the other hand, the director clearly decided to try to fulfill the kind of ambition that is less suited to “Infamy”. From a series concentrating on a teenaged girl – the audience for whom, in recent years, Netflix produces most of its own films – it has created a work that wants to belong in the genre of social drama.

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The series hopes to address prejudice, the position of women in a Romani society living traditionally, and racism. However, it does not absolutely succeed. For that, the director would have needed a detailed knowledge of the Romani milieu, and the characters, their motivations for their actions and behavior, should have been drawn more in depth. Apart from Gita and her father, the other characters are flat, psychologically, and therefore not very interesting. The same goes for the rendering of the Romani setting which, to a Romani viewer, is sometimes not believable, and that makes it hard to identify with. What probably influences my own perspective is the fact that I am not Vlax Roma, and this Polish series tells the story of a Vlax Romani family.

The biggest misstep by the director and by Netflix, which has a certain formula it follows when producing such films, is the casting of non-Romani actors in most of the main Romani roles (all of the Romani supporting roles are performed by real Roma). Although the actors are experienced and good, at some moments a Romani viewer simply does not believe them. That’s a pity. These days, when a great number of films are co-productions, it’s not a problem to cast actors who are both professionals and Romani, for example, from Bulgaria, Romania or Slovakia. A series that wants to approximate a Romani milieu and Romani subject matter should cast actors who are Romani. To be fair, the performance by 24-year-old Zofia Jastrzębská as Gita is believable and brilliant, she properly enjoys playing the role of a teenager who is a bit wild.

Despite all the objections I have to this series, I recommend watching it. Gita’s story is compelling, and films with protagonists who are Romani are being produced only slowly. I just can’t see the series as a social drama, though. Rather, it’s a classic Netflix product about a teenage girl who is grappling with her roots and with her destiny being predetermined.

Romani viewers, please be indulgent toward some of the scenes that may seem inauthentic to you. Non-Romani viewers, please don’t see this series as a documentary showing you the milieu of a Romani family. It’s rather like the American films inspired by Bollywood. You get a bit of exoticism, a taste of a different culture, nice costumes, but you will not learn much about the authentic milieu of an Indian family from them. That doesn’t matter, we approach such films as they are.

“Infamy” is a nice series, mostly for a young audience. It does not probe the depths of Romani society, whether that was the original intention of the director or not. “Infamy” also ends in such a way as to hint that a sequel is being counted on. We’ll see.