Ceija Stojka / Bright Green Grass Under the Planks ( Ceija Stojka / Unter den Brettern hellgrünes Gras )

Ceija Stojka / Bright Green Grass Under the Planks (DVD) (*)

~~$27.99~~ $21.97

Original Title: Ceija Stojka / Unter den Brettern hellgrünes Gras
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Germany ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
136 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2000 and produced in:
Austria ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Karin Berger

Written By:
Johannes Rosenberger

Actors:
Karin Berger

Synopsis:

Ceija Stojka is a painter, an author and a musician. Karin Berger's two films about her complement each other as the portray of a woman, showing up many facets of her personality while on the other hand reconstructing a biography which carries many collective experiences of the Roma and Sinti. The basis of this narration is in the here and now, while the past is always linked to the present through cutbacks of historical photos and film footage, encounters with places of memory and through Ceija Stojka's paintings. She is one of the few persons of her family to have survived the Nazi concentration camps, among them Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. These films not only call to memory the persecutions of the Third reich, they also tell of a childhood as a traveller, of her life as a young woman in the 1950s and of a holocaust survivor who has kept her dignity and her lust for life in spite of the traumata she suffered.

Ceija Stojka is a portrait of 64-year-old Austrian Rom Ceija Stojka, who, after a nomadic childhood, settled in Vienna many years ago. In the recent past, Ceija Stojka's fame as an author, painter and singer has spread outside Austria. She represents the opening of Rom and Sinti society to the world of the "gadje." This process and all the difficulties it involves is unique in the history of the Rom in Central Europe. The central theme of this documentary is the fusion of two extremely different worlds in this fascinating woman. Beginning with Ceija Stojka's present life, her biography is reconstructed in this film portrait. At the same time, a critical chronology of images portrays the common associations with the "gypsy," examples of which pervade Ceija Stojka's life. A comprehensive consideration of the gypsy's image, from romanticized projections to images of exclusion, discrimination and destruction, and finally the present ambivalent relationship between Rom and non-Rom.

This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 24 November, 2012.