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CinemARC Gipsy Queen

Thursday 20 March, 2025 – 6 p.m.- 9 p.m.

Film Screening and Concert

Advanced , Research Centre,University of Glasgow, 11 Chapel Lane (Off Byres Road), Glasgow G11 6EW

Free – Reserve a Spot at Eventbrite

The ARC is excited to be partnering with CineRoma, the UK’s first Roma film festival, for a screening of Gipsy Queen (2019). Directed by Hüseyin Tabak, Gipsy Queen is a powerful and inspiring boxing story of a Roma single mother who uses everything she‘s got trying to keep the heads of her two children above water and enable them to get a good start in life in their new home in a foreign country.

The film will be followed by a musical performance by Romane Cierhenia, a family band of Polish Roma musicians and dancers carrying on the musical tradition of their ancestors. The performance has been organised through Romano Lav, a grassroots Roma community organisation based in Govanhill.

Schedule

Doors open: 18.00-18.15

Gipsy Queen: 18.15-20.15

Concert: 20.15-20.45

About Gipsy Queen

It‘s hard not to like young Ali. She has the heart of a lion, is proud, doesn’t complain and works herself to the bone for her two children, Esmeralda and Mateo, as a cleaner in Hamburg’s famous Ritze underground club. But deep in her heart Ali carries a wound: after she became an unmarried mother in Romania she was disowned by her father – for whom, until then, she was the Gipsy Queen, the queen of all Roma. When Ali discovers the boxing ring in the Ritze‘s basement one day and gets to watch a fight it brings back memories of boxing training with her father. Frustrated and disappointed by life, Ali vents all her fury on the punching bag in the basement of the Ritze one evening. Tanne, ex-boxer and owner of the Ritze sees her and recognizes her talent. She starts to box again and sees the chance of a better life.

About Romano Lav

Romano Lav is a grassroots anti-racist Roma community organization and registered charity based in the Southside of Glasgow. They were established in 2013 by Marcela Adamova, a local Roma woman who was frustrated by Roma people being stigmatized and left out of wider community conversations. Since then, their work has challenged the racism, discrimination and disadvantage experienced by Roma. The organization is made up of Roma and non-Roma people working together in solidarity to promote social justice and effect meaningful change. They carry out their work in multiple streams, such as through projects, events, research and activities. The work is diverse but united by the common objective of empowering Roma people, and Roma young people and women in particular.

About CineRoma

CineRoma is the UK’s first Roma Film Festival, and has been run as a partnership between Romano Lav and Southside Film (in its first year) and OFFLINE Cinema (in the second). The festival is a 3 day event of films made by and with Roma people, exploring themes such as identity, history, representation and challenging systems of power. The festival is co-curated by a cohort of young Roma people that alongside programming, make films to be included in the programme.

About Romane Cierhenia

Romane Cierhenia were set up in 2014 by frontwoman Sonia Michalewicz with support from Romano Lav. They are a family band of Polish Roma musicians and dancers, carrying on the musical tradition of their ancestors. With their performances, they give people a lot of joy and try to make sure that everyone will be dancing! Through the music, they love to pass on their energy, tradition and history for all to enjoy.

This section: Cinema, Community event, Free Events, University of Glasgow Advanced Research Centre