Somewhere Better (2003)

An observational documentary following the Kovacs, a Czech Roma family applying for asylum in London while facing the dilemma of where to bury their mother. Almost two years in the making, it reveals an unfamiliar landscape of funeral rituals, struggles with wallpaper, opening of a Turkish/Roma social club and family business difficulties. This story of a family’s journey of self discovery and determination to adapt in a new country, takes issues of identity and asylum out of abstracted contexts and places them within deeply human realities.

Completed as a co-production between Arcimboldo, Stampede, BBC Storyville and Czech television

Made thanks to grants from the Czech Ministry of Culture and Open Society Institute of Documentary Fund