Movies Similar to Vojta Lavička: Ups and Downs

De caballos y guitarras(2024)

A musical, and also a reflection on watching, on trying to escape an anthropocentric gaze and also on watching itself in cinema. Featuring mares and horses: Triana, Víctor K, Bambi Sailor, San Special Solano, Buck Red Skin, Onkaia, Cool Boy, the donkey Agostino, the mule Guapa. And also Alfredo Lagos, Raül Refree, María Marín, Pepe Habichuela, Virgina García del Pino, María García Ruiz, Pilar Monsell, María Pérez Sanz.

Brothers of the Night(2016)

Soft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable.

Miri fajta(2020)

The central figure of the documentary is Robin Stria, an amateur filmmaker who is trying to create the first Roma sitcom in the Czech Republic. Its title - Miri Fajta - means My Family in Romani, and the Romani creator wants to tell a story about Romani using Romani actors. At the same time, it offers him the opportunity to think more deeply about his identity and show it at a time when the issue of self-awareness is also a problem of representation, because Roma creators are scarce.

Requiem for Auschwitz - the film(2022)

13 years ago, director Bob Entrop made the film A piece of blue in the sky, the first film in the Netherlands that depicted the murder of almost 1 million Sinti and Roma during the Second World War. There is a taboo on what happened during the war, you don't talk about it with anyone and certainly not in front of a camera. Requiem for Auschwitz is a sequel, with the most valuable moments from the first film, supplemented with the grandchildren and the creation and performance of the 'Requiem for Auschwitz' by Sinti composer Roger Moreno Rathgeb by the Sinti and Roma Philharmonic from Frankfurt and a Jewish choir in the Berliner Dom in Berlin, during Holocaust Memorial Day. During his visit to Auschwitz in 2020 with four musicians from the Dutch Accompaniment Orchestra, Roger shows them the places that inspired him.

Noncia(2022)

The animated short film tells the moving story of the resistance and bravery of Alfreda Noncia Markowska, a young Roma woman from Poland who saved the lives of around fifty children and young adults during the Second World War.

Roma WWF Superstar to Teacher: A Mini Documentary(2024)

Watch the inspiring story of Paul Roma, a former WWF wrestler turned teacher, as he shares not only wrestling techniques but also valuable life lessons with his students…

When Borat Came to Town(2008)

A look at what happened after Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was filmed in the Romanian village of Glod. It follows the life of one girl who longs to escape the poverty as foreign lawyers arrive with the promise of suing 20th Century Fox for millions of dollars.

Valentina(2016)

Valentina lives among her extended family in the poor quarters of a Roma neighbourhood in Skopje, Macedonia. The ten-year-old girl is a tomboy and a highly gifted storyteller. To its charismatic heroine, the film is a roaming companion. Via quirky anecdotes, surreal daydreams and painful memories, Valentina introduces us to her family.

Silent Days(2019)

The film is separated into four chapters, each tracking a different group of protagonists who all have one thing in common – they were born deaf. Little Sandra likes to play football and admires Ronaldinho. Marián worships trains and wants to be an engine driver. Teenagers Alena and René are expecting a baby and long for it to be born healthy. The trio of Roman, Kristián and Karmen help their parents by collecting junk to be sold and dream of one day having a house with a flush toilet.

In Bocca Al Lupo

O čo ide Idě(2016)

Gedeelde Trots(2017)

Mercedes as Butterfly(2024)

In the suburbs of Montpellier, France, in the spring of 2024, a Roma wedding celebration is about to begin. In the bedroom of a small apartment, Luisa and her cousins meet up to talk about their dreams, their traditions, and their desire for emancipation. The ritual of flamenco dancing became for Luisa a space of freedom.

Všetky moje deti(2014)

El Camino Hasta Bely Basarte(2020)

Vierka, or The Mystery of Family B's Disappearance(2006)

When Czech singer Ida Kelarová meets the young Roma singer, Vierka Berkyová, she discovers an extraordinary and vibrant talent. Determined to develop her musical abilities and career, she brings her and her family from their home in Slovakia to live in the Czech Republic. They are encouraged to learn new routines and develop their lives in a variety of 'productive' ways. Then, one day they disappear without trace. What began as a document about Verika develops into a mystery. [taken from the London Film Festival 2006 catalogue]

Apocalypsever - Franco Maresco(2020)

Tongóbriga (El espíritu de un lugar)

Black and White in Colour(1999)

A vivid documentary portrait of Véra Bílá (1954-2019), a Gypsy singer acclaimed in the international music world. The film explores Romany culture and what it means to be part of a marginalized minority group. She was dubbed the Ella Fitzgerald of Romani music. The Czech singer enjoyed international success in the late Nineties when she was signed to the German record label BMG.

Alltid Fick Man Höra Jävla Zigenare(2003)

Ever since the first Roma people arrived in Sweden five hundred years ago, they have been discriminated against and persecuted. The lack of knowledge, invisibility and denial of the historical abuses that Roma have been exposed to is one of the many contributing causes of continued marginalization and vulnerability of Roma today. Here, the Roma tell of the abuses and persecutions they experienced during the 20th century. How it felt like as a child being constantly expelled from the camp, not infrequently in the middle of the night, with violence and under gunfire. Soraya Post from the traveling group tells how her mother, as a pregnant 23-year-old, was forced to abort her child in the seventh month. The reason: She was a "gypsy".