Aiming to create a "Gypsy-free" Romanian town, a mayor tries to move local Roma into an abandoned chicken farm, encircled with barbed wire and patrolled by guards with dogs. A Roma family gathers in a Transylvanian graveyard to mourn the death of 3 brothers murdered in an earlier pogrom that also saw the destruction of 21 of their houses. In a squalid trailer camp ten kilometers from Vatican City, a young Roma couple that fled persecution in Romania is trying to build a new life. Instead they end up begging to feed their children. Their nightmare worsens when the mayor of Rome decides to bulldoze the camp to the ground. A Romanian Roma activist seeking asylum in Canada tells a heart-breaking story of a pogrom against his community back home, and explains that this international human rights crisis has its roots in 500 years of slavery in Eastern Europe.

Romania hopes to enter the European Union by 2010 but first must improve their treatment of minorities, especially the Roma. But what hope is there for the Roma when gatekeeper countries like Italy are also in flagrant violation of human rights conventions?

SHORT VERSION This version is shortened from the director's original 72-minute cut and was edited with educational and group screenings in mind, where length is an important factor. The director describes the difference between the two versions as follows:

"The 72-minute version of SUSPINO - A Cry For Roma contains a number of scenes that have been excised from the 50 minute version."

"The short version's account of the destruction of the Roma/Gypsy camp omits two scenes that delve into the aftermath of the event. Daily life in the Roma camps is portrayed in three additional scenes in the longer cut of the film, which juxtapose the relative poverty of the camps with the affluence of Rome and its citizens; for contrast, the 72-minute version also documents Roma families struggling to adapt and survive in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. This segment features Emilian Niculae, one of the film's principle characters. A Roma man's testimonial concerning discrimination against Roma in the workplace is also absent from the 50-minute version."

"In addition to these scenes, which have been completely removed from the abbreviated version of SUSPINO, several scenes have been replaced with title cards in the 50-minute version. These include an appearance by Istvan Haller, a Romanian Human Rights Worker, as well as Canadian Roma activist Ronald Lee's visit to a goverment-regulated trailer park that houses those Roma displaced by the destruction of the camp in Rome, a visit that occurs one and a half years after the commencement of shooting for SUSPINO." Gillian Darling Kovanic

Web Page: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/sacr2.html

Reviews
"I had no idea how much I would be affected by watching this intensely moving documentary. I wanted to grab all my colleagues, and sit them down, and make them watch it. If anything will dispel the popular notion that 'the Gypsy's life is a joyous life,' then this will."