“We Start Our Lives from Different Positions.” A Dialogue

Abstract

Alina Șerban is an award-winning film and theater actress, playwright, and emerging director of Roma origin. Born in Bucharest in 1987, she overcame poverty and discrimination, becoming the first in her family to graduate from university and to continue her studies abroad. She pioneered Roma feminist political theater in Romania with her one-woman show I Declare at My Own Risk. In cinema, she had leading roles in Marta Bergman’s feature film Alone at My Wedding, which premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2018 and earned her several Best Actress awards, and in Huseyin Tabak’s Gipsy Queen, which had its premiere in 2019 and earned her, among other awards, The Best Actress in Germany in 2020. She has recently debuted in film directing with a short about Roma slavery. In the interview conducted with her, this issue co-editor Cătălina Tesăr followed three lines of inquiry: (1) how ethnicity influenced Alina’s life trajectory and her career, (2) how Alina perceives the representation of Roma in art and public spaces, and (3) how she perceives early age marriages. The interview was conducted on the phone, and Cătălina and Alina had not met in person prior to the interview.