Ruäch – A Journey Into Yenish Europe

Were the “travelling Bohemians” - whose praises Baudelaire sang in his poem of the same name - Yenish? Most of them have now become sedentary. In the collective imagination they are seen as itinerant, but very few of them now travel on the roads of Carinthia, Switzerland or France to make their living. Through the intermediary of a Yenish friend, Andreas Müller and Simon Guy Fässler were able to win the trust of a few members of this minority, who are usually wary of discrimination – or even persecution, which they have undergone since the dawn of time. The filmmakers travelled with these members of the community for six years, adopting their lifestyle. In Ruäch - A Journey Into Yenish Europe, the ignorance, prejudice and otherness of the “gadjo” filmmakers are an integral part of the film's dramaturgy. They step into the frame, engage in conversation, while the camera captures their surprise, and the subtle changes in mutual perception. They invite us on a journey to a little known Europe, casting an empathetic and anti-folkloric gaze over this community infatuated by freedom and marked by the wounds of the past.

Emmanuel Chicon

Andreas Müller
Ruäch – A Journey Into Yenish Europe, 2023
Christian Schocher, Filmemacher, 2015
Joshua, 2002
Simon Guy Fässler
Ruäch – A Journey Into Yenish Europe, 2023
Onkel Albin, 2011
Die wundersame Welt des Luo Ping, 2009