When Our Walls Fell: A short movie

a brief history of our Roma quarter - and the attempts to destroy it

Picture of Pepi from the movie

A picture speaks a thousand words. And a movie, even more.

In September, 2022, Pepi co-created an 11-minute short movie about the history of his Roma quarter (mahala) and the demolition of its houses.

This was done with the invaluable initiative and skills of our friends from ATD Fourth World: an international non-profit that does amazing work with communities living in poverty.

In 2020, Martina joined an ATD group of volunteers organizing games and activities for children. This is how she met our tribe and, soon after, Pepi.

Walking into a Romani mahala is a complicated thing. Not because someone will rob you or attack you (as the stereotype goes,) but because the Romani are mistrustful of outsiders. They will welcome you, most likely offer you a coffee, chat with you, but if you had any agenda, best forget it. For a group of people to walk into a Roma mahala and shoot a movie, especially where someone is sharing history, is an extremely rare thing.

This mov…