VIERKA, OR THE MYSTERY OF FAMILY B'S DISAPPEARANCE

The Czech-born singer Ida Kelarová, known as the “Voice of the Roma”, is the daughter of the famous Rom musician Koloman Bitto. In her concerts and workshops she pleads the cause of intercultural exchange. When she meets the 12-year-old Vierka Berkyová from Slovakia, she is excited by the girl’s musical talent and phenomenal voice. Ida records an LP with Vierka, and is determined to further her extraordinary gifts. That is the beginning of an unusual project, which director Miroslav Janek and his camera crew document close-up. Ida invites Vierka and her extended family to move in with herself and her husband. Different worlds collide: As an assimilated Rom, Ida has very different notions of basic rules in relation to housework, discipline and consumerism. “It can’t be Christmas every day of the year,” she tells her . nancially dependent house-guests, who listen obediently but make no attempt to change their lethargic ways. Ida reluctantly slips more and more into the role of a prototypical social worker – a helpless helper – who labours to educate stubborn and grown-up children. When it becomes clear that Ida is trying to temporarily remove the young singer from her symbiotic family union, they break off all communication. Vierka moves out with her relatives, and vanishes. Director Janek eventually tracks her down in a smoky disco, where she is singing to earn some money for her family. VIERKA is a finely observed and nuanced document of an encounter that miscarries.