[critical] ZANETA

Z –aneta, woman strong and strong willed, is a Rom from the Czech Republic. Every day she struggles to find work, earn a little money, and raising a proper daughter. Facing daily discrimination of the Czech “white” she tries to escape his condition, without breaking with his family ties and his identity. Between financial difficulties and complication of family, the life of Zaneta, and the position of Roma, is a constant struggle. The feature film of Petr Václav follows the struggle of discrete and daily life of these characters, between the prejudices of the Czech republic and the excesses of their own family.

Since the end of the communist system, Roma in the Czech republic are ravaged by poverty, debt, rejected the labour market, the abused and the accused to take advantage of the social system. In response to this discrimination and poverty, they survive on small schemes, forget their situation with their families and their holidays. Has the image of the close of the first role, the Roma of ZANETA form a true family broken and shattered, they are at once tender and brutal between them. The film will always alternate between the violence experienced within the community to or arising out of the czechs “white” ; and the tenderness and the joy that emerges from the characters. This alternation gives the film its greatest quality : do not ” force lines “.

As soon as you open the director, Petr Vaclav, puts his camera on Zaneta, his environment and his family, giving his film the look of an incursion brutal in the lives of these individuals. Of course by the situation of Zaneta and her family, the filmmaker speaks to us through the extension of the life of Czech Roma, but by an approach without concession or exaggeration, ZANETA always avoids switching in self-pity.

The film has the intelligence not to take part. Rather than adopt an approach of militant and self-righteous, Petr Vaclav chooses to show the reality of the condition of Rom. It is up to the spectator, a witness, to take a step back, and that, immersed in the wild world of Zaneta, is aware of the issues and dynamics. ZANETA manages to denounce with efficiency, allowing you to select the exposure rather than the prosecution. Because of this the director does create a stigma nor does it systematizes, sparing neither the czechs nor some of the behaviour of Roma people, giving so much more than just his approach.

The actors, all deriving from a casting wild within the Roma community, are of a rare beauty, they are leading roles, as Zaneta and her husband, or side as the father, this is the mark of a fine sensitivity and spontaneity by their appearances. The staging of Petr Vaclav allows the feature to navigate between the realistic portrait, fiction, and immersed in the state of mind of the main character, always tossed about between his desire and his doubts, his desires and his constraints.

”ZANETA is engaged but not militant, preferring to always speak to us about individuals rather than directly tackling the condition of the Roma”

ZANETA is a film deliberately weighing. By both his subject and his mood, that by his direction or his photography. The producer place the frame, transcribed in the daily environment, grey, dirty and cold, of his characters ; to then be allowed to express themselves. Petr Vaclav has then no need of big effects, the film reflects the condition cumbersome and tiring of the Roma, but without the switch in the hyper-realism, with the attachment, which is born for its characters. ZANETA is engaged but not militant, preferring to always speak to us about individuals rather than directly tackling the condition of the Roma. The slow pace of the movie lets stick to the topic, expressing from the inside the doubts of the protagonists. We can however regret that this pattern doesn’t end, on the long term, by too much weigh and walnut finally the last part of the film that drags in length. Peter Vaclav nevertheless finds his film with a very nice ending, which highlights the complexity of the choice of Zaneta and the continuity of its struggle.

The other outputs of the may 6, 2015

PYRAMID, the GARDENS OF THE KING, The PROOF, MELODY, HYENA (criticism / counter-criticism), A FEW MANY BLINDLY, ZANETA, SUPPORTER, LADYGREY, THE TALENT OF MY FRIENDS, etc