REPRESENTATIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN FILM

IDENTITY AND MEMORY: VANINA VIGNAL’S DOCUMENTARY STELLA (2006)

Gabriela Iuliana Colipca

METHODOLOGY WORKSHOP IN THE THEMATIC AREA OF

NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE MEDIA (WP4)

Vanina Vignal on intercultural interactions

Her connections with Romania have been going back and forth for the past fifteen years, working on different jobs. → Romania as her “second country”

She grew interested in ethnic minority issues as she worked as an assistant to a director who was making a film about Romanies and French institutions, which enabled her to go into the shantytowns in the Parisian suburbs.

Aim of the film: shaking off prejudiced opinions about and stereotypical representations of migrants, in general, and Roma people, in particular. Equally interested in casting a new look on gender relations in the Romanian society. Stella is but the first documentary in a trilogy about Romanian women (the second film, 4 Women of Bucharest, is about the lower middle class, while the final piece of the trilogy will be about the ruling class ousted in 1948.

Stella (2006)

Stella Margean Stella and her husband, Marcel Margean

Courtesy of Vanina Vignal (http://www.stellalefilm.com/vanina.html)Courtesy of Vanina Vignal (http://www.stellalefilm.com/vanina.html)

The shantytown

Courtesy of Vanina Vignal (http://www.stellalefilm.com/vanina.html)

Migration in Stella

Some of the interviews with Stella and her comments on her photos reveal the radical changes in the Romanian society after the regime change in 1989 and the effects on a certain part of the Romanian population (for which Stella and her family are representative) leading, in the short run, to illegal migration.

Historical Context

Before 1989 (collectivism) After 1989 (shift towards individualism)

- the sense of stability they were given by the fact they had a job BUT also- the pressure the Communist regime put on the people: people arrested in the streets, forced to go working in the fields or to attend parades organised by the Communist Party on certain occasions.

- liberalization of the work market and large-scale privatisation of industry → high unemployment rates, precarious living conditions (no photos to show or to comment upon)

↓ Illegal migration

Illegal migration Reasons for migration:

France perceived as a kind of mirage, a place where they hope to solve all their problems

medical (Marcel’s illness – this is what makes Stella and Marcel’s case as migrants atypical);

social (like many other Romanian migrants who hope to find jobs, so that they could live in more decent conditions).

Consequences of illegal migration: constantly fearing that they might be arrested by the police and

deported (migration still perceived as a matter of national security);

difficulties in finding proper jobs because of the lack of residence permits;

financial difficulties which cause Stella and Gabi to earn their living begging (the stereotype of the beggar: East-European accent, a scarf over the hair);

poor living conditions (morning wash from a bucket, the laundry hung over a dump, etc.);

depression and poor health condition.

Illegal MigrationSocial policies in the French system:- voluntaries teaching French to the migrants who live in the shantytown, so that they might integrate in the French society;- free medical services at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. Yet, a prominent sense of exclusion and no chance to get a permit that might help them find proper jobs, which forces the migrants to opt either for underpaid work on the black market or for begging.Stella’s conclusion: her life as an illegal migrant is “poorer and more miserable than in Romania.” Hence, the decision to return to Romania.

Migrants and … migrants

negative, levelling stereotypical representations of the Roma migrants (overlapping, through abusive generalisation, those of the Romanian migrants, on the whole) → high uncertainty avoidance (see Hofstede 1991)

yet, differences within the community of migrants in the shantytown: Romanies (from the working class, trying to make something of their lives, dreaming of settling down and integrating well in another country, though not necessarily through deliberate choice but because they cannot find work in their own country; emigration represents for them the hope for a better life) vs. Gypsies (Romani thieves or quaint Gypsy musicians) → probably reminiscent of the rather strained inter-ethnic relations between the Romanian and Roma communities in the home-society. In this respect, Stella and Marcel are an atypical couple, defying all the ethnic-difference based prejudices of their families and communities.

Migration and space representation

An interesting sense of the spatial frame delimitation and of the rhythm of life:

images of the Western civilisation (trains, crowded tube stations with glamorous advertisements; excellent highways and beautiful landscapes) vs. the rough and rusty shantytown, desolate image of the dump behind the improvised dwellings, camp-like confinement and the bumpy roads, crumbling houses, small flats in Romania.

speed and noise vs. slow passage of time, waiting, silence.

exclusion and marginalization (West) vs. a sense of community in which people help each other (East).

Stella – the portrait of a woman

Stella and the tasks of womanhood: Wife: Though relevant to some extent for the

large power distance that establishes between men and women in masculine societies (like the Romanian one), Stella and Marcel’s relationship is special in many ways, as they love and support each other unconditionally. Love for her husband = Stella’s main reason for illegal migration to France.

Mother: obliquely alluded to in the comments on the photo sequences.

strong affection ties among the women in the family: the case of the three sisters – Doina, Stella and Gabriela.

Stella – the portrait of a woman

AcknowledgementsOur warmest thanks to Astra Film Sibiu. Their

representatives supported us in our endeavours to make contact with film directors whose documentaries, presented in the Astra Film Festival, foreground different perspectives on migration from Romania. Owing to them, we managed to get in touch with Vanina Vignal, the director of the documentary Stella, to whom we are particularly grateful for her kindly providing us with a copy of the film as well as for her wonderful openness and availability for further collaboration.