Educational material The Casting – A satirical short film about the media's reproduction of antigypsyist prejudices
A director is looking for actors for his new film about ‘travelling people on the outskirts of the city’ – the characters should be as “authentic” and ‘true to life’ as possible. So Sinti and Roma are invited to the casting. But they do not correspond at all to the director's antigypsyist prejudices and expectations.
A film against antigypsyism, which aims in particular to highlight how the distorted image of Sinti and Roma is shaped and created by the media.
Critical assessment
If one checks the credits of ‘gypsy’-themed films, one will find out that almost without exception, since the beginning of film history, films on this theme have been written, directed and acted by professionals from the dominant national culture, and in those cases where Roma non-professional actors are recruited, this is done after meticulous casting based on dark skin colour and conformity to stereotype. The short film “The Casting” takes a humorous look at the power dynamics at play during the pre-production process of auditioning for roles. In a self-reflexive gesture, it satirises the reproduction of antigypsyist prejudices in the medium of film. We can see that filmmakers have power over the storytelling that others do not. Film directors, screenwriters and costume designers are in position to decide what the characters’ appearance, behaviour, and customs should be, what qualities these characters should have as human beings and what stories they should be part of. Filmmakers are the ones who define the ‘truth’ about ‘gypsies’, whereas Roma have no say in the matter. In short, “The Casting” exposes the power asymmetry at the phase of film production, the lack of dialogue between the filmmakers and the filmed Roma, and the resulting antigypsyist images.
Another problem highlighted by the film concerns the repertoire of roles available to professional Roma actors and actresses. In the field of performing arts, the antigypsyist gaze – which is a supraindividual rather than an individual gaze – tends to make no conceptual distinction between fictional characters and real performers. The fact that Roma performers are held to a dramatic unity of character both on and off the big screen/theatre stage is responsible for the widespread practice of hiring professional Roma actors predominantly if not exclusively to play imaginary ‘gypsy’ or real-life Roma characters, or of hiring Roma lay actors as the so-called ‘naturals’. Paradoxically, the same effect of ethnic ghettoization within the acting profession results from the present-day identity politics movement whose proponents insist that actors should better not cross imagined ‘ethno-racial’ divides.
(Text: Radmila Mladenova)
Factsheet
Runtime: 2:35 Min.
Genre: Satire / Awareness-Spot
Language: Deutsch; Subtitles: Englisch
A production of Montavia Filmproduktion GmbH
on behalf of Goethe-Institut Schwäbisch Hall
in cooperation with
Zentral Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Research Centre on Antigypsyism (Universität Heidelberg)
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH Abteilung Drittmittel
Cast
Felician Hohnloser - Regisseur Andi
Lara Haucke - Assistent Sina
Cathrine Dumont - Elli
Ivana Nikolic - Casting participant (Romni)
Sejnur Memiši - Casting participant (Rom)
Ilona Serina Roché - Casting participant (Sintezza)
Team
Regie & script- Willi Kubica
Producer - Julius Wieler
Production - Steffen Freckmann, Paul Prenissl
Camera - Benedict Uphoff
Camera Assistent - Terry Kraatz
Light - Lina Marzin
Costume - Katharina Schweizer
Mask - Tanja Kusterer
Music - Meike Kathrin Stein
Set-Audio & Mixing - Bjarne Traunier
Colourmixing - Rafael Starman
Set-assistant- Sejad Ademaj
