Roma Mountain

The film Roma Mountain has as its starting point the political awakening of Finnish-Estonian writer and leftist politician Hella Wuolijoki (1886-1954) and how she describes it in her memoirs. This awakening happened in her garden in Walga, in 1906 during the aftermath of the First Russian revolution of 1905.

Roma Mountain was filmed during the years 2017-2021 in Valka/ Valga, on the border of Latvia and Estonia. One of the film's storylines follows the changes in the landscape of Wuolijoki's early life. However, the film focuses on the experiences, everyday life and work of the women living at the present-day border. What remains there to live in a place from which the protagonist has left? What kind of a garden makes political awakening possible?

Instead of focusing on the writer’s significance, the film listens to the parts of history that are not well-written. One such event is the silenced genocide of the Roma people in the Baltics, experienced and told by a Roma woman.

Oral histories not only amend and add polyphony to historical events but may also provide the reasons for current societal conditions and injustices.