La Cité des Roms

In Bulgaria, some 20,000 Romany gypsies live in Nadejda ghetto. A concrete wall covered by barbed-wire separates them from the town of Sliven. An underground passage permits a circulation between the two agglomerations. Although Sliven acquiesces to hiding its gypsies, the latter’s’ votes are sorely coveted when election time come round. And there are no holds barred in buying them, from bribes to the candidate’s “spontaneous” dance with the little girls. Between two bowls of soup, the ongoing municipal campaign is one of the two main subjects of conversation for the locals in Stefka Nikolova’s café. The other is the issue of school segregation, an invisible barrier that is much more difficult to cross than the ghetto wall. (Yann Lardeau)