In the past Roma, however, due to their inherent social structure and religious diversity were too fragmented to generate a political movement operating on a national level and specifically concerned with Roma issues. This appears to be changing slowly and it is clear they have been successful on the NGO level in recent years. There are a number of active political organisations including Free Bulgaria, Party for Social and Democratic Change (PSDC), Evroroma (that works together with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms) and Citizens’ Union Roma. There are also Roma candidates on the lists of the other parties.

Despite a 1999 Roma-government agreement that was historical in that it was produced in a consultative process with over 70 Roma organisations and stipulated that ‘the elimination of discrimination towards the Roma should become one of the main political priorities of the Bulgarian State’, by 2004 the Council of Europe was not able to do more than say that its implementation ‘is still in its early stages’. Whilst there are local successes, especially in the educational field and in addition the Bulgarian government (along with almost all the other governments in South East Europe) declared a ‘Decade of Roma Inclusion’ from 2005 on, there are other political groups seeking to exploit a cocktail of economic insecurity and racism so it is still an uphill battle.

As I type this in August 2007 the dichotomous currents in the Bulgarian society are clearly visible from media reports over the last few weeks featuring Roma. An exhibition has opened in the National Museum of History with the intention of promoting ‘the harmonious co-existence of the Bulgarians with the largest and, for the country, traditional ethnic communities: Turks, Roma, Armenians and Jews’. The aim: ‘The organizers of the exhibitions are seeking to provoke response to and solidarity with the fate of the individual ethnic groups in Bulgaria.

We’d like to be able to cultivate an awareness that all cultural values are part of our national treasure house and belong to the European and world heritage.’

Just a few weeks later there were reports of Roma riots in Sofia. In many of them emphasis was laid on police containment measures, on the fact that the Roma were chanting ‘Death to Bulgarians’ and ‘trying to chase away the media while complaining at the same time before the cameras that they are constantly being bullied by the Bulgarian population in the area’. This produces the disconcerting picture of running Roma in front of running cameras… a running commentary? The only person to try and put the riot — a reaction to skinhead attacks on Roma teenagers—into a wider context was a representative of the Helsinki Human Rights group who not only mentioned the skinheads as the proximate cause but also drew parallels to the causes of the riots in Paris in 2005 — the frustration of the social and economic losers in a neo-liberal system. According to the same report the Roma themselves allege that the skinheads were involved in what was a politically-motivated provocation in connection with the up-coming municipal elections. Meanwhile back in Austria a dispute has broken out in Vöcklabruck concerning a temporary camping place for Roma and Sinti…

I’m almost at the cinema now, go up the stairs and note that the white paint on the entrance roof covering the box office is peeling, disclosing a red coat underneath. One of the patches has an Africa-like shape. I film, walk through the cinema, stumbling a little on the rubble that lies everywhere as if it had been deposited by the glacier-white screen as it retreated. I exit through a small rear door into an area of coniferous trees where the outside door to the projection room was once situated. Now there is just a hole and as I approach it the acrid odour of urine gains the upper hand over the resinous smell of the trees.