Synopsis
True story of Papusza - the first Roma woman who put her poems into writing and published them, and therefore confronted the traditional female image in the gypsy community. The film follows Papusza’s life from birth to old age: arranged marriage as a small girl, her life in a gypsy tabor before, during and after second world war, then forced settlement in communist Poland and urban life in poverty. Her meeting with the Polish poet Jerzy Ficowski, who discovered her great talent for poetry and published her works led to a tragic paradox.

Program Note
‘Papusza’ means ‘doll’ in Polish. Yet, it is also the alias of the gypsy Bronislawa WAJS, a Polish poet. Unlike a doll which can’t live at its
 own will, Papusza, the leading character of the film, cried, laughed, fought, read, wrote and abandoned throughout her whole life in order
 to live her own life. Papuza’s tough life (1910-1987), shown on the esthetic black-and-white screen from birth to death, represents the
 history of suppression on minorities, gypsy communities, and the dark side of modern 20th century history. A gypsy is neither allowed
 to stay in one place nor to learn; moreover, a gypsy woman shouldn’t identify herself as an individual outside of the group she belongs
 to. However, Papusza taught herself how to read and write, became a poet by herself. Hence, she was the first gypsy who published her
 collection of poems. Her identity as a gypsy combined with her fate to become a distinguished poet gave birth to a new world of poetry.
 Papusza’s whole life, therefore, was both an honor and disgrace to the gypsy community. Papusza’s poems are beautiful but her life was
 painful. Despite the beautiful music, dance, love and landscape of Poland the lives of gypsies within the country were agonizing. When
 Poland was communized, gypsies who freely wandered around Poland and Lithuania were forced to settle down. During the Second
 World War, they were harshly oppressed and massacred more than Jewish people. Once gypsies were forced to settle down, they had to
 fight against poverty in the city. Mingling the beautiful scenery of Poland, gypsy culture, and one talented woman’s arduous life, Papusza
 let us look into the continuing history of discrimination and suppression on gypsies and the pain women feel from it. [LEE Angela]