Leaving to Remain

The complexities of life for the Roma in the UK and across Central Europe are well known. With a poor reputation almost everywhere, persecution and segregation even in their home countries, an determined spirit has developed that has seen the Roma ready to adapt to circumstances, all the while enhancing local diversity, culture and society.

Leaving to Remain is a revealing documentary directed by Mira Erdevički, and developed over five years, that follows three Roma from Slovakia and the Czech Republic and how they came to the UK, adapted to the culture then having to endure the Covid 19 pandemic alongside the tougher immigration policy adopted by the government after Brexit.

The three: Petr, Denisa and Ondrej have between them spent a considerable amount of time in the UK and found success in the police, as a lawyer and as a student.

These experiences come into their own during lockdown that coincides with the scramble to make the deadline to complete the governments EU settlement scheme. Petr having left the police has dedicated his time to the local community in Peterborough eventually becoming the first Roma to made a Czech Honorary Counsel. Denisa’s legal training takes people through the minefield of the application, at the expense of her health. Ondrej a student who during the pandemic takes on a warehouse job that sees him climb the ladder all the while studying, getting married and expecting their first child.

The film also follows the three back to their native countries to which they remain attached, with mixed emotions. There’s talk of returning one day, missing the land and people. But there’s disappointment too. In the Czech Republic children are still segregated, and in Slovakia they are trying to reverse poor school attendance and results by consulting schools in the UK where the children thrive, once they are given opportunities.

Filmed on their own mobiles it does come over a bit ramshackle at times with little production method. This though doesn’t do any harm overall. In fact, the rickety camera work gets the viewer in closer to the Roma, their culture and society, which helps to provide the necessary insight into their lives in the UK, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Leaving to Remain opens in UK cinemas on 28 April 2023