At the meeting after the projection of her film Sophia Tzavella dispelled all doubts tormenting the spectators, answering all their questions. As she underlined, her film is a kind of a documentary fairytale about happiness with which she wanted to do justice to Gypsy families living in the shabby Paradise Hotel, the relic of the communist experiments in architecture. What touched her most was a huge tolerance of these people and their candour. A lot of homosexuals live in Block no 20, and one albino, Bożydar, and nobody threatens their otherness. When she first met those Gypsies, she thought of them as of castaways from a huge dilapidated ship. But it turned out that their unique ship-like block is in no ways worse than other, better appointed blocks. It’s said that for 10 years there’s been a debate over what to do with the building- leave it or knock it down, with a stronger emphasis on the second option. The alarmed artist is going to get back there, however not to track the fates of those people. She would simply like to show them her film.

Joanna Chludzińska and Jagna Lewandowska talked with Sophia Tzavella.

Where you afraid when you walked for the first time into the world of Gypsies living in Block no 20?

Yes, at first I was scared a little, but I’ve seen the building earlier and got used to it. Besides, people become accustomed to things quite easily.

I went there for the first time to make a TV documentary. When I saw the building, I thought: O, my God…

One of the women appearing in the film refused to eat for three days because of the repulsive conditions of the place. This place is really crazy, you’re lucky you couldn’t feel that smell… One day 5D cinemas won’t be anything new. I’ve never been in such cinema, but I believe there’s one in Bulgaria.

Would you show your film in a 5D cinema?

No! I bet the audience would leave. It’s difficult to describe that awful smell. The trash, decaying there for years, will celebrate its 20^th anniversary in October.

You must have been really interested in those people if you were able to tolerate those conditions…

Oh yes. One day it was windy, and I lost one page of the script. I was just going to break down, when I saw a Gypsy boy who picked up the sheet and started wiping it on his own clothes… It was a very uplifting and symbolic moment. A few similar situations happened later. I met a lot of people with that ‘spark of humanity’ in their eyes. I found their joyfulness and merriment inspiring. Living in such difficult conditions, they kept the simple ability to rejoice at the smallest things. What Bożydar, the albino, says at the end of the film is a kind of a spell, a quintessence: “Happiness consists of a little bit of mud, a little bit of sadness and love, some money and that’s all.”

What about the stereotypes? Does your film prove or contradicts them? Do you believe in clichés about Gypsies?

Of course one can find stereotypes in my film, and I agree with most of them. I just tried to be above it all, to look deeper, to create a story about happiness.

Did you announce a casting?

We may say so… Everyone was trying to out-shout one another, saying “I can dance” or “I can sing”, they pushed and wanted to appear in the film. They have it in their blood. And so the choice was quite simple. I just treated them normally. They are very candid. The only problem was to implement discipline, to teach them how they should behave in front of the camera..

Some of the scenes in ‘Paradise Hotel’ seem ironic to us. You didn’t treat your actors seriously all the time, did you?

You’re right. That scene in which someone is throwing trash out of the balcony can’t be treated seriously- especially when you listen to the background music… But on the whole, that’s their life. I asked them once why they wouldn’t try to earn money on waste segregation. And I received a simple answer: “We don’t want to do it, it’s so boring”.

Have you already started planning a new project?

I always have a plan for another film ready in my head. This time it will be a story about people who have near-death experiences…

.… and managed to go back?

Precisely! I would like to bring this subject up, but from a scientific point of view. I want to talk with doctors, ask people who have such experiences. I’ve already known a few. There are many specialists in this field and many books on the topic. I’ve been dreaming about exploring this phenomenon since my childhood.

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