Throughout the eight episodes of the drama series, with the help of hip-hop music which she composes, Gita is able to construct her own identity, her own way of being Roma, which builds on both elements of the Roma tradition and on the egalitarian values she learned in Wales.

Infamia – the title refers to being marginalised in a community for violating boundaries, though “infamia” is not actually a Romani word – has proved a major hit since its launch. “If you miss ‘Unorthodox’, or if you want a show about teenagers that is far more substantive than the typical wan fare, watch this,” the New York Times wrote.

Joanna Talewicz, who acted as an advisor on Roma culture for the series, tells BIRN in an interview in Warsaw that Gita ultimately arrives at her own version of being Roma, “which is the result of balancing different realities” – her Roma roots, the multicultural exposure she got in the West and continues to get via the internet and culture, and her relations to the non-Roma majority in her village.

Though the show was the initiative of non-Roma director Anna Maliszewska, Talewicz points out that around 300 Roma were involved in its production, including non-professional actors playing key protagonists such as Gita’s grandmother. Many of the scenes were filmed in a real Roma settlement at Maszkowice in southwest Poland.

Talewicz also highlights that the show’s creators were inspired by emancipatory projects emerging in the Roma communities themselves over the last few years.

“It is not accidental that Gita expresses herself through hip-hop,” Talewicz says. “Hip-hop always came from revolt, from poverty. It was created by the grassroots and it gave a louder voice to those who felt excluded and marginalised, it allowed them to express their disappointment and anger.”

“I really admire what people like Pretty Loud or Mihaela Dragan are doing,” Talewicz says, in reference to a Serbian feminist Roma rap band based out of Zemun, Serbia, and to a Romanian Roma actress and musician, who founded the Roma feminist theatre company Giuvlipen in Bucharest, Romania. “They are rapping about the situation of Roma women in a very direct way, they are very brave.”

Artistic projects like Infamia, Pretty Loud or Giuvlipen show how a younger generation of Roma across Central and Eastern Europe – especially women – have been challenging both Roma traditions and majority culture to create space for their own unique voices.

Being Roma in Poland

Numbering only 20,000-30,000 people out of a total population of 38 million, Poland’s Roma community is barely visible – hence the bigger surprise at the fact that a series such as Infamia was produced in this country.

But, as Talewicz explains, the Roma community here faces many of the same issues that Roma everywhere are confronted with.

“We do have extreme poverty and communities living in segregated settlements, but most of the Roma in Poland could be said to be relatively integrated, with kids going to school, women especially very active and NGOs offering support to communities,” Talewicz says. “Nevertheless, we have been facing the same stereotypes, racism and anti-Gypsyism as Roma everywhere face, there is no doubt about it.”

Talewicz herself comes from a mixed family (her father is Roma, her mother Polish, from a family with Jewish roots as well) in Oswiecim, southern Poland. Oswiecim is the Polish name for Auschwitz, where the biggest Nazi concentration and extermination camp was located.

One of the formative events in Talewicz’s life was what she describes as a “pogrom”, when, following a trivial conflict between a Roma and a non-Roma man, hundreds of Roma living in the town were chased out by their white neighbours and their houses set on fire. The Polish Communist state eventually withdrew the citizenship of the Roma people in the town, forcing them into exile in Sweden.

Talewicz says that as a result of this experience, she found herself as the only Roma child left at her school because her mother was non-Roma, meaning she had to face all the associated prejudice alone.

She says the history of Roma people in Poland, including as victims of the Holocaust, was not much discussed within her family – “sometimes people react to trauma with silence” – which may be the reason why she became a cultural anthropologist, to explore that history and her identity.

Refugees and challenging stereotypes

After teaching at both the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Warsaw University, Talewicz is now primarily focused on her work with the NGO she co-founded in 2012, Fundacja w Stronie Dialogu, which offers all sorts of support to Roma from Poland and, latterly, Ukraine.

Even if there are no proper statistics, Talewicz says an estimated 40,000-50,000 Roma refugees from Ukraine could be currently living in Poland, which means a doubling of the Roma population in the country. Despite the efforts of her foundation, they mostly get support from international organisations and local authorities, but not much in the way from the central Polish government.

“When I saw what happened to the Roma refugees from Ukraine, I realised that the same thing is happening again and again, just like during the Second World War or the Balkan Wars: we are completely invisible, we are not being recognised as refugees, as victims,” Talewicz says, adding that she was strongly moved to take action to change that.

Talewicz, who had already signed the contract to be a consultant on Infamia when war broke out next door, says the popularity of the show gives her the feeling that the Roma community is finally being seen.

“This show is like a huge microphone for us,” Talewicz says, describing how lifestyle magazines are calling to ask her about the show but also about issues confronting Roma women in their daily life.

The series is constantly challenging stereotypes, both those the majority holds about Roma and those Roma have about themselves. Contrary to what non-Roma may think, the role of women is extremely strong in Roma communities, something the series highlights when introducing the figure of a great-grandmother with tattoos on her face whose spirit still dominates the household or when focusing on Roma women’s solidarity.

“Of course, we are patriarchal,” Talewicz says of the Roma community, “because we live in a patriarchal Polish society. But actually, in the private sphere, Roma women have very significant power.”

While the Netflix drama has been met with enthusiasm in mainstream Polish society and abroad, not everyone in Poland’s traditional Roma communities is comfortable with it.

“For the conservative part of the Roma community in Poland, the confrontation with this more liberal image of us is inconceivable,” Talewicz says. “Speaking about sexuality or the body – that’s still taboo for many.”

Talewicz says that what empowers her most are the countless messages she gets from young Roma women, or Roma LGBT youth, who say the show makes them feel like they are less alone.

Her own favourite scene from the series is when, after Gita posts a controversial music video online, her grandmother refuses to let her inside the house saying, “You are not ours any more”. In turn, Gita calmly yet forcefully says, “Yes, I am.”

“This is my story and the story of so many people,” Talewicz says. “I’ve been told I am not a real Roma for making this series. But who is to say what is a real Roma? Even if it is hard, we need to be ourselves – this is how we set new boundaries and how we move forward.”