Filmscreening and Talk with Director Hamze Bytyçi (RomaTrial e.V.) (GER)

The three animated short films tell stories of resistance and self-assertion, of cohesion, of finding one’s way back into life and of remembering from the perspective of Sinti*zze and Rom*nja.

Noncia

Germany - 2022, 7 minutes

Director: Hamze Bytyçi

This animated short film tells the moving story of resistance and bravery of Alfreda Noncia Markowska, a young Romni from Poland who saved the lives of about fifty children and young adults during World War II.

Menschen können zweimal sterben

Germany - 2022, 6 minutes

Director: Hamze Bytyçi

How can we remember those who have gone before us? That is the question of this animated short film, which tells the story of two Prussian brothers who brought joy and music to life with their instruments. The short film emphasizes the need to tell the stories of those who can no longer tell them themselves, and is an urgent appeal not to forget them.

…die bringen nur die Verbrecher weg

Germany - 2019, 7 minutes

Director: Hamze Bytyçi

“They only take away the criminals,” Zilli Schmidt’s father said when the National Socialists arrested the first Sinti*zze and Rom*nja. Because he was fatally mistaken, 95-year-old Sintizza tells her story. In the animated short film, she tells of the murder of her daughter and family in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, her struggle to survive, and the meaning of life after the Holocaust. How can we remember those who have gone before us? That is the question of this animated short film, which tells the story of two Prussian brothers who brought joy and music to life with their instruments. The short film underscores the need to tell the stories of those who can no longer tell them themselves, and is an urgent plea not to forget them.

The films are part of a nine-part film series produced by RomaTrial e.V. and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe to mark the tenth anniversary of the Memorial to the Sinti*zze and Rom*nja of Europe murdered under National Socialism in October 2022. They are the stories of murdered and survivors of the Nazi crimes against the European Sinti*zze and Rom*nja. These nine cinematic works of art were each created in an individual narrative and visual style by artists from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.

Hamze Bytyci, born in 1982 in Prizren/Kosovo, lives and works in Berlin. In 1989, his family came to Germany. Already at the age of eight, he makes his first steps as an activist at Christmas 1990 in the church asylum in Tübingen, when his family was fighting against their own deportation. In 2005, he graduates from drama school in Freiburg and founds the organization Amaro Drom (Our Way). After a one-year engagement in Zurich, he moves to Berlin in 2006, where he performs and directs at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Maxim Gorki Theater, and smaller theaters. Since 2007 Bytyci has worked as a foundation consultant, as an independent theater and media educator at various Berlin schools, and as an intercultural family helper for LebensWelt. In 2012, he founded the association RomaTrial e.V., where, among other things, he manages the online station Radio Corel and organizes international film summer schools under the label Balkan Onions. In 2012, he developed his own interactive performance format, Hilton 437, in which he explores social and political issues. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Berlin state executive committee of DIE LINKE. In October 2017, he organized for the first time the AKE DIKHEA? Festival of Romani Film. In April 2018 he was co-curator of the 1st Roma Biennale, the first self-organized biennial by and with Rom*nja artists from all over Europe at the Maxim Gorki Theater.

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