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i itsai Romni - the child Woman

The movie is an ethnographic documentary taking place in the town of Heraklion in the island of Crete, at the camp of the Roma in New Halicarnassus. It focuses on the place of the Roma women perceived by their point of view and how it is formed socially through marriage, and it is an indirect comment on the status of women in general. The movie has participated in the Peloponnisos International Documentary Film Festival and the Greek Documentary Festival of Chalkida.

  • Evangelia Goula
    Director
  • Evangelia Goula
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    59 hours 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 31, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    35,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Greece
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Chania Film Festival (CFF)
    Chania
    Greece
    November 1, 2018
  • international film festival peloponnese 2019
    Kalamata
    Greece
    January 25, 2019
    Greek Documentary Equality Awards
Director Biography - Evangelia Goula

Evangelia Goula was born in Thessaloniki in 1984 and she is a (visual) artist and a director. For the time being, she works as an art teacher in Crete. She graduated from Athens School of Fine Arts in 2011 and in 2017 she successfully completed her Postgraduate Studies programme “Digital Forms of Art” Master’s Degree (Athens School of Fine Arts -Visual Arts Department), specialising in Observational Cinema.

Her works of art have been presented in a lot of Greek collective exhibitions and her documentaries have been shown in a lot of famous Greek and international festivals, receiving multiple awards.
In 2017 she completed her first film ITSAI ROMNI, focusing on the position of Roma women, with an implicit comment on woman’s position in contemporary society.

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Director Statement

Director’s note
With the movie “I tsai Romni”, I wanted to talk about the place of women in contemporary Greek society. Placing the community of S. Halicarnassus Roma people as a protagonist, a community socially excluded and therefore carrying particular characteristics and being quite alienated from socio-political
developments, the movie gives prominence to the differences as well as the unknown similarities between the Roma and the rest of the local society, emphasising on the role of women and family in it.

Women’s self-perception used to be that of a less dynamic and autonomous, mainly due to the fact that they were obliged to remain at home and not work, having to deal only with raising the children and household issues, placing any personal needs in the background.
However, in the course of time, the image of women has changed significantly. Nowadays, women have jobs, are financially independent and do not hesitate to claim their place and needs. These changes are mostly reflected in the institution of marriage, mainly on the fact that women tend to get married at a higher age than they used to, as they do not always prioritize having a family anymore, but achieving in the workplace and being financially independent. Consequently, the age of marriage amongst Greek Roma women has also changed in quite a few cases, and they perceive their role more expanded as well.
Nevertheless, there are still cases where the power of the traditional Gypsy/Roma culture is all the same strong, and getting married as well as entering motherhood in a really early age is still considered the reason women were designed for. The same view is also rested on all local, secluded and alienated communities around Greece.