Narodila jsem se pod šťastnou hvězdou

 "Her name seemed to be a star of hope that would lead the Romani people out of the vicious circle of misunderstanding between the Roma and the gadje. Elena Lacková (22 March 1921 in Veľký Šariš - 1 January 2003 in Košice) wrote the first Romani play, rehearsed it with her relatives in the hut of a gypsy settlement; it was written about with admiration in the newspapers, she lifted Romani people out of the mud of ignorant contempt... I started visiting Ilona again in 1976... And Ilona told the story. She told things she hadn't talked about when her husband was alive. Nothing bad - just a relaxed reflection and evaluation of her own life. It was fantastic, and I started filming. We filmed for long evenings, a week, ten days, the whole time I was staying with her... I went to film Ilona's biographical and at the same time ethnologically extremely interesting narratives several times a year for eight years. I transcribed them continuously from a tape recorder and accumulated pages and eventually fascicles of Romani texts. While transcribing, I was re-experiencing trance like Ilona's narration. At the same time, I felt more and more that I would be extremely guilty of Ilona, of the Roma, and of the Neromi if I did not pass on her testimony." (From the foreword by Milena Hübschmannová) A biographical mosaic from the background of the Roma minority. A narrative with fantastical elements, but also the testimony of a woman who has lived through two totalitarianisms and is struggling to hold on to her traditional beliefs.

Czech edition