Project Detail

Trial of a Child Denied

Synopsis

When Helena Fereníková was 19 years old and in the throes of labor with her first child, she was told to sign a document. Only afterwards did she realize she had authorized her own sterilization. Eleven years previously, the same happened to Elena Gorolová. Both women are fighting for justice. Helena has chosen legal action, and became the first Roma woman to win a case in Central Europe against the hospital that sterilized her in 2001. Elena addresses international audiences to ensure this never happens again.Helena and Elena's situations are a microcosm for the multiple sources of social injustice facing today's Roma. Through their poignant and unnerving stories, this film unearths the shocking anachronism of the practice of forced sterilization that continued long after the Communist mandate.

Details

Year
2009
Type of film
Shorts
Running time
25 mins 45 mins
Format
HDV
Director
Michelle Coomber
Producer
Dana Wilson
Editor
Michelle Coomber
Director of Photography
Michael Kaboš, Lujbo Ljubo Tomanovi
Sound
Daniel Zahradní, Michal Gábor, Martin Lonek
Music
Vojetch Lavi, Mungo Baby

Production Status

Production Company

Mortal Coil Media

49 Montpelier Vale
Blackheath
London SE3 0TJ
UK

T +44(0)7974 212 384

Sales Company

Journeyman Pictures

4-6 High Street
Thames Ditton
Surrey KT7 0RY
UK

T +44 (0)20 8398 4616

Page updates

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