Papusza

"Papusza" is a true story of the Roma poet Papusza and Polish poet Jerzy Ficowski, who discovered her great talent. Papusza was the first and only Roma woman who put her poems into writing and even published them. By doing so, she confronted the traditional female’s role in her community and as a result, she and her family were banished. It is a story of a gifted woman who wants to preserve her culture with words and has to pay a painful price for that decision.

"Papusza was a Roma girl, born in a carriage, an autodidact, who in the end was mentioned in the world’s encyclopedias and had her work translated into many languages. She was also named as one of the 60 most important women in Polish history. Isn’t this an astonishing destiny worth to be told in an epic film? For us, it was also an opportunity to introduce the world of the Romas and to give it back its dignity." - Directors' statement

Poland 2013