Roma Day Festival 2025:

FILM: Papusza (The Doll)

/ Director: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzystof Krauze, Poland 2013, 131 min.

Papusza - The Poetess of the Roma

PAPUSZA is a magnificent story about the life of Roma poet Bronisława Wajs, affectionately called "Papusza" by her mother. When Papusza was born in 1910 in eastern Poland, the Roma women prophesied that "she would bring great pride or great shame" to everyone. As a young girl, she secretly learned to read and write from a Jewish bookseller and discovered the world of poetry. When she met the writer Jerzy Ficowski after the Second World War, he encouraged her to write down her poems. Her works tell of her wishes and dreams, her love of nature and her longing to travel together. Years later, her poems were translated into Polish and published. Papusza suddenly became famous. But she pays a high price for her fame...

PAPUSZA is based on the true life story of the first female poet of the Polish Roma. Directors Joanna and Krzysztof Krauze have made a poetic film with captivating black and white images, which is also an epic historical panorama. The film follows the hard life of the traveling Roma, the persecution before and after the war, right up to the coercive measures taken by the Polish communist government to settle them down. Papusza's biography is closely linked to the history and culture of the Roma in Poland in the 20th century.