''The Deathless Woman'' is a 2019 film by Roz Mortimer which is both a

ghost story A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature'' ...

and a documentary, and which investigates historic and contemporary crimes against the

Roma people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

Plot

The Deathless Woman, voiced by Iveta Kokyová in

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

(

Lovari Lovari ("horse-dealer", from Hungarian "ló", ''horse'') is a subgroup of the Romani people, who speak their own dialect, influenced by Hungarian and West Slavic dialects. They live predominantly throughout Central Europe (Hungary, Poland, Sl ...

dialect), is the ghost of a Roma matriarch who has returned to tell of what she witnessed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and to question the absence of her history in archives and museums. She watches the non-Roma Seeker (Loren O’Dair) investigate her story and more. We also hear first person testimony accounts from real-life witnesses and see fantastic recreations of some scenes, as

tableaux vivants A (; often shortened to ; plural: ), French for "living picture", is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatric ...

Background

In an online discussion with Roma Holocaust historian and activist Ágnes Daróczi and Professor of Media at

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...

, András Müllner, Roz Mortimer discusses how discovering Daróczi's book ''Pharrajimos: The Fate of the Roma During the Holocaust'' was an important factor in developing the film. She also describes her work with Roma language exper
Juice Vamosi
who was a consultant and the Romani translator on the film .

Cast

* Iveta Kokyová as the voice of the Deathless Woman * Loren O’Dair as the Seeker * Oliver Malik as Boy

Release

''The Deathless Woman played'' at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

in 2019. Since then it has screened at various festivals including: Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in Czechia,

Borderlines Film Festival Borderlines is an annual film festival held in multiple locations around the Herefordshire, Shropshire and Powys borders. The first festival took place in 2003. History Borderlines Film Festival started in 2002 with the ambition to deliver a rur ...

in the UK,

EBS International Documentary Festival EBS International Documentary Festival also known as EIDF, is an annual film festival hosted by the Educational Broadcasting System of South Korea since 2004. It is "Asia’s prestigious documentary festival", with focus on highlighting documenta ...

(EIDF) in Korea,

B3 Biennial of the Moving Image The B3 Biennial of the Moving Image (German: ''B3 Biennale des bewegten Bildes'') is a cross-media moving image festival in Frankfurt, Germany. It features films, media art, games, and artistic confrontations with VR, AR and MR by internation ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Aesthetica Short Film Festival The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is an international film festival which takes place annually in York, England, at the beginning of November. Founded in 2011, it is a celebration of independent film from around the world, and an outle ...

in the UK, Ake Dikhea? Festival of Romani Film, Rolling Film Festival in Kosovo, Human. It has also streamed online at True Story.

Reception

''The Deathless Woman'' won the Special Jury Award at the Ake Dikhea? Festival of Romani Film. Jury member Lisa Smith described it as “A film with a lot of weight, being both politically and artistically moving." She said "It highlights the need for commemoration and remembrance of the Romani Holocaust victims. It also has a lot of strength in connecting the historical persecution of Romani people with the current day situation.”

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Deathless Woman, The 2019 films Films about Romani people British documentary films Romani-language films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films