Romani community in Czech Republic's second-largest city films the first-ever Romani sitcom

Two pilot episodes of the Romani sitcom "Miri fajta" will be screened today at Brno's Music Lab for the public. The first-ever Romani sitcom was filmed on the basis of a successful theatrical production.

The aim of the sitcom is to break down social taboos through humor and to give young Romani actors an opportunity to perform. The project is the work of Romani activists Nikol Budai and Robin Stria who came up with the idea last year.

"There are very few projects that are produced by Romani people themselves and that might bring together this divided society through humor. For that reason we have decided to bring together people who share this enthusiasm and to create the highest-quality work we can," Stria said.

In 2017, with financial support from the Brno-střed Municipal Department and the O2 Foundation Smart UP, the theatrical version of the sitcom was created and premiered in November of that year. The production enjoyed great success and was performed in 10 cities throughout the Czech Republic.

In August 2018 the sitcom was filmed. "The filming was very demanding. First we held auditions, rewrote the screenplay and created the costumes and sets, which are different for film than for theater," said Stria, who also works at the DROM Romani Center in Brno.

The first two episodes of the sitcom will be screened by the producers in Brno this evening. The premiere in the Music Lab will begin at 20:00 and is open to the public.

The producers plan to offer the sitcom to viewers through the format of online public television. "We want to give an opportunity to Romani actors to apply themselves and also to build the best image of Romani people we can in the public media space. We are very proud of having brought this project into this form after dedicating almost three years of work to it in our free time and we believe we have room to move forward," Stria said.