The direction debut of Andrei Schwartz, film maker from Hamburg

was the surprise success at the film festivals of Amsterdam and Toronto.

On May 12th his award-winning "notes about a gypsy camp" will be shown in the cinemas

"Perhaps in the hereafter exists another hereafter", thinks Dica about what might come after death. But she cannot answer this definitely, because she only knows her life here on earth. But seeing her way of life, the audience gets the impression, that 60 years old Dica lives already now in the hereafter.

Dica belongs to the protagonists of the documentary film "Auf der Kippe", whose producer is Andrei Schwartz, born in Romania. "Dallas" is the name of the Roma camp near Cluij in Romanian Transylvania. The camp is situated next to a rubbish dump. The Roma live on this dump. Several times a day dumpers empty their stinking load, and the rubbish seekers share their booty with a sheep flock and birds that are incessantly flying around the place like the birds over Alfred Hitchcock's Bodega Bay.

A terrible life? Certainly, yes. But Schwartz does neither fade in appeals for funds nor account numbers for them. His honest interest quickly leads to the questions: How does life go in a commune like this? How much money do you earn for four bags of waste paper and scrap metal, and how long does the money last? And when, the devil, do they screw when always hordes of children are around in the huts?

Andrei Schwartz had asked the people where the name "Dallas" comes from. "Of course from the film with Bobby and Pamela. All their relatives have a part like us here".

Indeed, some things are very much alike: The daily routine of a family, working, educating children, going to the movies at the weekends. One drinks too much alcohol, there are arguments between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. They even have an improvised fitness center. However, in spite of all this, the extreme expulsion of the people is showing.

The organization "Médecins sans Frontières" looked to the establishing of two classes for the Dallas kids in the neighbouring school. This means to the children, that they have to scrub themselves thoroughly after having finished the collection of rubbish. They are allowed only clean at school. Despite of all this, they are still said to be an "epidemilogic risk". It, therefore, seems cynical, when the teacher teaches them a childrens' song, talking about a little dog that starts the day with a perfumed bath.

"To make films, means to watch death at work", Francois Truffaut had said once. This documentary film watches life at work. Schwartz is neither a moralist nor a missionary. He is a narrator, whose words complete the pictures of the famous Hungarian cameraman Gabor Medvigy ("Satanstango"). Even the professional voice of the speaker can hardly reflect the personality of the producer. "Somebody said about the film, that it is as if someone would comment his holiday slides", Schwartz says modestly.

Nevertheles, this brought him the well-known Joris-Ivens award and in Toronto the Blue-Ribbon-Award.

THE RIGHT TO HAVE A HUT OF YOUR OWN

"Romnews" spoke to Andrei Schwartz about money and relatives in Dallas

RNN: How long have you been working at this project?

A.S: We started in 1990/1991. At that time I planned a bigger project about the excluding and expulsion of the Roma. Eventually, a friend told me about the Dallas housing-estate, which was supposed to be pulled down by the police soon. As we wanted to make the film at all costs before this was going to happen, we quickly got some film material from Hungary and a camera from Bukarest, which could be run by a car battery.

RNN: Was it fixed from the beginning that the performers would been paid?

A.S.: We were always asked by the occupants: "What's the use for us of your making a film?" We could not answer this question.

In the beginning the people were very suspicious because they feared for their existence. Bit by bit they began to trust in us and we were allowed to make the film.

I still laugh when I remember the last scene of the film when they all get their fee: I am looking like a colonial master, but I was extremeley nervous because I did not know whether we would have enough money and enough change. By the way, they all spent their fee the same night in the neighbouring pub. We could have given the money to the landlord right away.

RNN: Has the situation in Dallas changed since then or is it still supposed to be pulled down?

A.S.: Difficult to say. On one side, some facilities like school classes have been established. At least the children have been entered in the class book. The officials to whom the housing-estate is a thorn in their flesh do not want a scandal for anything in the world. Perhaps the presence of the journalists gives some protection for some time. Many reporters came after we had left. Even the New York Times took photographs. However, in spite of all this the Roma are not taken for serious even now. We must wait and see what the future brings. We neither can offer a solution of the problem.

RNN: Are you still in touch whith the people in Dallas?

A.S.: Yes, regularly. One of the assistant directors has become kind of an adopted child. Whenever an important decision has to be made, the whole family - including myself - decides. During my last stay I had to see to a hut of his own, because he had got engaged in the meantime.