Maya et Tosca - When gypsy voices rise
by Hakob MELKONYAN
43 min & 52 min - HD - 2025
In co-production with LuFilms, the SWR and the Réseau de Diffuseurs du Grand Est
In collaboration with ARTE
With the support of Région Grand-Est, Eurométropole de Strasbourg, CNC and Procirep-Angoa
Original title:
Chanter
la vie - Les manouches d’Alsace (43')
Maya et Tosca - Quand les voix manouches s’élèvent (52')
Year of production: 2025
Country of production France
Written by:
Laurence Uebersfeld
and Hakob Melkonyan
Director: Hakob Melkonyan
Music: Engé Helmstetter
Image, color-grading: Gautier Gumpper
Sound:
Martin Sadoux, Jérémy Vernerey,
Grégory Pernet
Editing and sound editing: Matthias Weber
Production: Laurence Uebersfeld (LuFilms) et Milana Christitch (Ana Films)
Tosca, an 18-year-old freshman at the Strasbourg Conservatory, is gradually preparing to leave the family nest to study opera and fulfill her dream of becoming a soprano.
Maya, 34, is a piano tune-up specialist and leads a choir that brings together both sighted and blind people, as she herself is visually impaired. This year, she is preparing to welcome 200 singers from various European countries for a massive concert in Strasbourg.
Maya and Tosca are cousins of Romani descent. Through them, we will meet this long-established community in Alsace, and we will give a special voice to Romani women. With their colorful, free-spirited, and uninhibited personalities, what does belonging to this community mean in an era of women’s emancipation?
THE DIRECTOR
Born in Armenia in 1984, he left his country in 2009 to live between France and Armenia. His studies at the Yerevan University of Cinema and Theatre (2001-2005) and then at the Munich University of Film and Television (2006-2009) gave him a necessary distance from his country's history, to which he now feels ready to return.
In 2010, he participated with his short film project "The White Wall" in a GREC (Groupe de Recherches et d'Essais Cinématographiques - Film Research and Experimentation Group, founded in 1969 by filmmaker Jean Rouch, producer Pierre Braunberger, and Anatole Dauman) writing workshop, which helps produce first short films. His mentor was the French cinematographer and director Caroline Champetier (Margarethe Von Trotta, Amos Gitaï, Barbet Schroeder, Jean-Luc Godard, Léos Carax, Chantal Akerman, etc.).
Other films with Ana Films :
La république fantôme (in production)
