Sami Mustafa
Sami Mustafa, a French-Kosovar Roma born in Pristina in 1984, is an independent documentary filmmaker, producer, and writer. He is the founder of Romawood and the Rolling Film Festival, where he serves as artistic director. He is currently an honorary member of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and www.eriac.org and a member European Film Academy www.europeanfilmacademy.org.
His latest film Trapped by Law won best film Award at the New York Film Festival, Discovery Young Talent Award at Cottbus Film Festival numerous nominations. The film was released in Cinema in North East Cinema in Germany and shown on Swedish Television channel YLE as well as Kosovo National Channels. https://trappedbylawmovie.wordpress.com/
To watch the movie on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/138302510He directed and produced about 50 short documentaries in the Balkans and Western Europe. https://romawood.wordpress.com/
He directed his first film as an intern in 2003 in the village of Plemetina in Kosovo. In a little over two decades, he has produced, directed, and written over fifty short documentaries, music videos, and one feature-length films.
In 2007, he launched the project “Jekh Kham Jekh Sel / One Sun One Nation,” which had the most significant impact on his life and work. One of his films, “Road to Home,” took him to the Cannes Film Festival in 2007; it was the only Kosovar film presented. “Nachi Palem Khere / Never Back Home,” his first mid-length documentary, was developed over seven years and screened at over 30 festivals worldwide. www.romawood.wordpress.com
In 2015, his feature-length documentary “Trapped by Law,” filmed over five years, tells the story of two Roma rapper brothers who are deported from Germany to Kosovo and overnight they are becoming “Kosovars”. The film won the Best Documentary award at the Albanian Film Week in New York and was nominated for numerous film festivals, including Jihlava FF, Kasseler, Dokufest for Golden Key, Dokufest to name few. It was his first film to be internationally broadcast on the YLE television channel in Finland, released in independent cinemas in western Germany, and on VOD platforms. https://trappedbylawmovie.wordpress.com
Since 2017, he has been researching Roma folk tales in Kosovo and the diaspora to refresh the art of storytelling within the Roma community and recall the shared memories with his father when he was a child through these narratives. Four years later, he publishes a collection in English and Romani. The book “Paramisija Katro Papus / Tales from My Grandparents” will be published in French and other languages. (see the book in English and Romanes version.
In 2009 as a result in traveling to film festivals with his films in Europe, he is deciding to lunch the first audience-based film festival focusing on films made by and about Roma. Since than this biannual event took place of seven edition, over 10k direct beneficiaries, about 50 film localy produce, over 500 carefully selected films, and 100 international film makers attended.
He is also the founder of the Romani film platform he founded in 2014, with over 150 films made by or about Roma from around the world. www.romacinema.org
His unique work as a Roma filmmaker and artist brings the representation of Roma in cinema and cultural spaces to a more humane level and to its population in Europe.
