8. März 2026: Film : "A Home for Rita" (Regie: Yulia Appen, 2026)

“A Home for Rita” is a documentary film which follows a Roma family that had to flee the Russian occupation in spring 2022. The work focuses on Roma women’s direct experiences of the war, as well as their stories and playful imagination. The narrative revolves around the housing problem for displaced Romas, and their search for a home and a sense of belonging. In the city of Zaporizhzhia, located 40 kilometres from the frontline, the protagonists face numerous difficulties, including discrimination and neglect. The film documents Roma people’s reflections on Ukraine and their own complex identity during the full-scale invasion and in the context of the resistance to Russian aggression.

Yulia Malysheva, Roma activist woman 

After the film, we will talk to director Yulia Appen and Yulia Malysheva about the lives of Ukrainian Roma women as internally displaced persons in the war and fleeing Russian aggression, and about her work as a filmmaker and activist. Yulia Appen is a member of the Ukrainian collective Free Filmers.

Guest: Yulia Appen (Free Filmers), documentary filmmaker and photographer, she was born in Zaporizhzhia and has lived in Kyiv since 2006. Since autumn 2022, following the full-scale Russian invasion, she's been collaborating with Freefilmers and the Solidarity Collectives on a series of interviews with anarchists serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the summer of 2023, she joined Freefilmers’ volunteer efforts in the Zaporizhzhia region. For nearly three years, she has been engaged in humanitarian work supporting Roma internally displaced people from occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Along with her volunteer work, she is working on a film about the Roma.
 

The event is held in English and is organised in cooperation with Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

Casino for Social Medicine, Sonnenallee 100, 12045 Berlin