Social Murder

This short observational film by the Averklub Collective follows everyday life of Romani inhabitants of the poverty-stricken Slovak settlement of Rudňany. The images of their lives are accompanied by the readings from a text by the German philosopher Friedrich Engels, especially his 1845 description of the poor conditions of Irish workers in England by using the term social murder. Combining these two components, it arrives at a highly up-to-date study of poverty, which is often accompanied by racism and stigmatization. "A class for which no one cares in terms of its education, which is left exposed to various odds, knowing no existential certainties, what reasons and interest it might have in anticipating to lead a “solid” life, and instead of using the favour of a moment, of thinking about outlying pleasures, which remain for it itself and its eternally staggering and changeable status largely insecure? A class which is made to carry all disadvantages of social order without receiving anything out of its benefits. A class for which this social order seems only hostile. And of this class, a demand to respect this social order is expected?"Extract from the text by Engels, in Zbyněk Baladrán website