Coming to Brno and how the Roma of Kazakhstan live Sitting in front of my laptop in the Dutch city of Groningen, I was trying to figure out what I really want to do during my third semester as my study programme allows me to choose whether to take an internship or to follow a research track. As an Erasmus Mundus student, I could go, for example, to Strasbourg in France or Uppsala in Sweden to conduct academic research in the fields of European society, politics and culture. On the other hand, as a person with some work experience in TV, I was realising that I really want to come back to the filming process, to the magic that happens when a cameraman pushes the button and the world behind goes silent, when everything that exists is being reduced to …a story. The dialogue between an interviewer and a respondent. The eyes that have trusted you and are ready to share what was lived. This thread, that is connecting the fading into oblivion and the hope of eternity. However, if one aims to keep anything for eternity, it should be something meaningful like gold extracted from the river of life sand. In the context of my studies, I wanted to find a place where I could also put in use the knowledge about ethnic minorities, migration, memory and heritage. When I found the Media Voice website, straight away I was impressed by the aim and the spirit of your team. The topic of Romani ethnic group is not what we see and hear every day, at least, where I live or used to live. Moreover, there are many prejudices that surround the people while clearly not enough individual stories are known to uncover how it is going for Europe’s largest ethnic minority today. In other words, I was immediately intrigued by what and how you explore in your documentary films. When I watched the videos on your website, I realised that was probably one of the first videos I ever saw about the Roma in a home environment sincerely sharing their experiences about being «the other one». I was thinking that I could learn a lot from Vera as well as get to know more about the people who, despite the official call to help the Roma to integrate in the EU[1], are believed to be “quintessential outsiders of the European imagination».[2] Before coming to do my Master’s degree in Europe, I lived in Kazakhstan and was familiar with only one Romani family. About 20 years ago, they lived in my apartment block and I was playing with their daughter. Then she went to study in Moscow and we did not meet since then. The only fact I remember about her family is that her brothers were excellent musicians. Indeed, people in Kazakhstan quite often invite Romani artists to private parties and ceremonies, but do not usually encounter them in day-to-day life. Even though Kazakhstan is a multiethnic country with a governmental network of ethnocultural centres, the Roma of Kazakhstan also remain quite invisible in public affairs. So far, one of the very few institutional bodies that appear in the media is the Gypsy Diaspora of the Aktyubinsk region, although the number of Kazakhstani Roma (or Russian-speaking European Gypsies) and Kazakhstani Sinti is estimated between 5,000 to 10,000[3]. Besides, the Gypsy population of Kazakhstan is also composed by the Mughat (so-called Muslim, Central Asian Gypsies) who migrate from the neighbouring Central Asian republics and are known for making living out of begging and having very poor living conditions. In contrast, the Roma and the Sinti live in urban centres and work in retail trade, so their standards of living are relatively good. Nevertheless, Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov state that «the attitude of the surrounding population to them can be defined as passively negative; the main part of the macro-society has a negative opinion of Roma, based on prejudices and stereotypes. There is no mass rejection and discrimination towards them on the basis of their ethnic origin or religion».[4] Last weekend, I met one Mexican guy who lived in Cejl, the so-called Roma district in Brno. He told me that it is incredible how one can feel the invisible wall dividing the city itself and the inner neighbourhood. Sadly, even today some people believe that this area in the centre of Brno is not very safe to live, but, on the other hand, this situation is changing slowly. For example, there is a bar located exactly between these two worlds where young hipsters and the Roma go. This bar becomes a place where people can see that they have nothing to fear as they all are the citizens of Brno. He adds that thanks to the Museum of Romani culture, there have recently been many festivals such as the Ghettofest street festival as well as the Jeden Svět (One World) festival. I think these examples prove how cultural initiatives can contribute to the perception of Roma people and eliminate stereotypes. That is why now I am developing an idea of a small (video) project about, Roma and non-Roma, creative people who, figuratively speaking, work in a bar on the invisible border between the two worlds and show that the entrance is always open to everyone. Author: Yelena Kilina [1] European Commission – PRESS RELEASES – Press release – Statement by First Vice-President Timmermans and Commissioner Jourová on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. Europa.eu. 2017. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-2241_en.htm [2] Schneeweis, Adina. 2013. Advocacy Representation and Resistance: Two NGOs’ Efforts to Communicate the Movement for Roma Rights, 1990-2006. Journal of Communication Inquiry. Vol 37, Issue 2, p. 151 cited Fonseca, 1997, p. 18. [3] Marushiakova, Elena, and Vesselin Popov. 2016. Gypsies in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cham: Springer International Publishing. [4] Ibid, p.60.