Romani people in fiction

Gypsy Fortune Teller by Taras Shevchenko.

Many fictional depictions of the Roma in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper which is paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Critics of how the Roma have been portrayed in popular culture point out similarities to portrayals of Jewish people, with both groups stereotyped negatively as wandering, spreading disease, abducting children, and violating and murdering others.

The Roma were portrayed in Victorian and modern British literature as having "sinister occult and criminal tendencies" and as associated with "thievery and cunning", and in English Renaissance and baroque theatre as incorporating "elements of outlandish charm and elements which depict [them] as the lowest of social outcasts," connected with "magic and charms," and "juggling and cozening." In opera, literature and music, throughout Europe, Roma women have been portrayed as provocative, sexually available, gaudy, exotic and mysterious. Hollywood and European movies, as well as popular music and other forms of pop culture, have promoted similar stereotypes.

Particularly notable representations of the Roma appear in classics like Carmen by Prosper Mérimée and adapted by Georges Bizet, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Miguel de Cervantes' La Gitanilla. The Roma were also heavily romanticized in the Soviet Union, a classic example being the 1975 Tabor ukhodit v Nebo. A more realistic depiction of contemporary Romani in the Balkans, featuring Roma lay actors speaking in their native dialects, although still playing with established clichés of a Roma penchant for both magic and crime, was presented by Emir Kusturica in his Time of the Gypsies (1988) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998). Another realistic depiction of the Roma in Yugoslavia is I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967).

Literature

• 1596: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare – Which includes the lines "Sees Helen's beauty in the brow of Egypt" ("Egyptian" was used to refer to the Roma of England). Here, Theseus is imagining the face of a lover can make the dark-skinned Roma look like Helen of Troy, who he considers more beautiful.
• 1600: As You Like It a pastoral comedy by Shakespeare – He uses the word "ducdame" (Act II, Sc. 5), possibly a corruption or mishearing of the old Anglo-Romani word dukka me or (I foretell or I tell fortunes).
• 1603: Othello by Shakespeare – Desdemona's handkerchief a gift to Othello's mother is a gift from an "Egyptian charmer" who can almost read the thoughts of people.
• 1611: The Tempest by Shakespeare – Caliban, the only human inhabitant of the mythical island, is thought to be named after the word Kaliban meaning "black" or "with blackness" in Anglo-Romani. As the first Roma immigrants arrived in England a century before Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, it is thought he may have been influenced by their looks and exoticised them.

Other media

• The Curse of Strahd supplement for Dungeons & Dragons includes a fantasy version of the Roma, the Vistani. Early printings portrayed the Vistani in a stereotyped light.

Video games

• The videogame Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King features Roma characters Kalderasha, named after the Kalderash, and his daughter Valentina.
• In the videogame Psychonauts and its sequel, Psychonauts 2, The main character, Razputin Aquato, and his family are Roma.
• In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, courtesan NPCs are replaced by the Roma which act as moving hiding spots and can be used to distract guards.
• The Crimson Skies character Nathan Zachary has claimed Roma heritage.
• The four protagonists of Mother Russia Bleeds are all referred to as Roma (their background is vague, but they were apparently raised in an impoverished Roma camp somewhere in Russia).
• In Koudelka, the main protagonist Koudelka Iasant is a young Roma from Wales.

Television

• In the television series Car 54, Where Are You episode "The Gypsy Curse" (aired 12 November 1961), Maureen Stapleton plays a Roma matriarch telling fortunes from a storefront in Toody and Muldoon's precinct. Stereotypical jokes abound. She lifts a guy's wallet, the father is a layabout, the children don't go to school, they pack up and move to another storefront in short order, etc.
• The Dennis the Menace episode "Dennis in Gypsyland" (aired 4 November 1962), featured a group of Roma who visited Dennis's town, were accused of theft, and almost inveigled police Officer Murphy into marrying one of their women, to whom he had offered bread at dinner.
• In The Andy Griffith Show episode "The Gypsies" (aired 21 February 1966), a family of Roma (one of whom is played by Jamie Farr) places a curse on the town of Mayberry.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966), a seven episode adaptation of the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, done for British television. Although some photographs exist, no recordings of the production are known to have survived.
• In The Monkees episode "Son of a Gypsy" (aired 26 December 1966), a family of Roma lose an audition to The Monkees, whom they proceed to invite back to their camp and force them to steal a valuable statue.
• Bombi Bitt och jag (1968) (Eng: Bombi Bitt and Me). A Swedish mini series focusing on a respectable young boy named Eli, and his friend Edvin/Bombi Bitt (Stellan Skarsgård), a wild rascal (whom parents forbid their children from being friends with), in the early days of the 20th Century. Bombi Bitt is depicted a child left to look after himself, and is disinterested in the knowledge gained from books (implied to be illiterate) The narration, for the first episode, establishes that Bombi Bitt's mother (Margaretha Krook) is a dispised woman, who lives with her son in a tiny cottage, and commits fornication with "tattare" (an ethnic slur for the Roma in Sweden, usually used for the Roma group known as Travellers). The narration states that the identity of Bombi Bitt's father is unknown (though, as his mother is said to sleep with Travellers, it is possible that the boy's father was one). It is left unclear if Bombi Bitt's mother is a Traveller herself. She is depicted as a dark woman, who drinks, is abusive towards her son, and sleeps around. Together with two men, she plots to steal the church silver, but their plan is foiled by Bombi Bitt and Eli. With the aid of the church keys (which they acquire with the aid of a bottle of moonshine, that Bombi Bitt says was dropped by some Traveller), the boys move and hide the church silver before the heist. Towards the end of the series, Eli and Bombi Bitt head to the market in Kivik. At the market, a group of Kalderash (one of whom is played by Roma singer and civil rights activist Hans Caldaras) sing and dance for the visitors.The Kalderash Roma sing in the Romani language, and are never shown being able to speak Swedish. At the market, there is also a Traveller husband and wife, who work with horse castration. The husband is depicted as a drunk, who pulls a knife at people. The wife pulls up her skirt in front of a full crowd.
• In the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts" (aired 22 November 1969), Scooby and the gang come across a "gypsy wagon" while driving, and have their fortunes told by an apparent Roma fortune teller.
• In the Mission: Impossible episode "Gitano" (aired 1 February 1970), the IMF team is tasked with protecting young King Victor of Sardia (Barry Williams) from assassination. Among the agents, selected by Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) for the mission is IMF agent Zorka (Margarita Cordova), a Roma woman and flamenco dancer. For the mission, team regulars Paris (Leonard Nimoy) and William "Willy" Armitage (Peter Lupus) disguise themselves as Roma men. The team intercepts Victor, shortly before his intended assassination. The team splits up, with Zorka, Paris, and Willy transporting Victor in a caravan. To protect Victor, they disguise him as a young Roma girl.
• In the Hogan's Heroes episode "The Gypsy" (aired 13 December 1970), LeBeau (Robert Clary) is almost struck by lightning. The other POWs see this as an opportunity for one of their schemes. Knowing that Colonel Klink (Werner Klemperer) believes in fortunes, they have LeBeau pretend to have Roma ancestry, and that the lightning caused the psychic powers of his blood to become active. Hogan's Heroes is set in a German POW camp, during World War II.
• The Canterville Ghost (1974) Television dramatization – Based on the (1887) short story by Oscar Wilde. An English gypsy group are suspected of kidnapping a girl but are innocent and join in the search.
• M*A*S*H (1972–1983):
  • In "Major Fred C. Dobbs" (aired 11 March 1973), Hawkeye (Alan Alda) tells a story about how "Frank Burns was stolen by Gypsies as a little boy". In other episodes, Hawkeye objects when someone refers to Koreans by a racial slur, or when someone is racist towards African-Americans.
  • In "Hawkeye Get Your Gun" (aired 30 November 1976), Max Klinger (Jamie Farr) attempts to get out of the army by claiming to be "Zoltan, King of the Gypsies", and dresses up in stereotypical Roma clothes. Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) questions how Klinger could be "King of the Gypsies", when he's Lebanese. Klinger insists that he was stolen from the Roma by two ruthless Lebanese peasants, who raised him as theirs (and have now admitted to the truth). Potter does not buy the story. Klinger, refusing to give up, says that: "Now I know why the sound of violins set my blood on fire. Why I'm so attracted to storefront windows. Why, when I smell paprika, I face towards Budapest. Why I have the urge to roam". Klinger spends the rest of the episode pretending to be a Roma fortune-teller, and claims to be "Working on a plan to turn the motor pool into a Gypsy caravan". In one scene, Major Burns asks Klinger where some tape is. Klinger assures Burns that "Just 'cause I'm a Gypsy doesn't mean I stole it".
  • In "The Yalu Brick Road" (aired November 19, 1979), the whole camp is affected by a salmonella epidemic after eating a bad Thanksgiving turkey, acquired by Klinger. When Majors Winchester and Houlihan (who had been away during the dinner) are informed of the situation, Major Winchester states that "any fool would know better than to actually eat Gypsy poultry".
  • In "Yessir, That's Our Baby" (aired 31 December 1979), Klinger states that he understands babies. He adds: "It's the Gypsy in my soul".
  • In "Settling Debts" (aired 6 December 1982), Colonel Potter tells the story of how he and his wife, Mildred, bought their house. He recalls that it had been Mildred's idea to buy one (previously, they had been living in rented houses on military bases). According to Colonel Potter, Mildred had "said that she was tired of livin' like a Gypsy".
• The Muppet Show (1976-1981):
  • In the episode guest starring Peter Sellers (aired 1 January 1978), the opening number casts Sellers as a "demented Gypsy violinist". The number has Sellers dressed as a stereotypical Roma man, and features a stereotypical caravan on stage. The episode was made available on Disney+, with a content advisory attached to the episode: “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
  • In the episode guest starring Jonathan Winters (aired 8 February 1980), the show is placed under a curse by a stereotypically dressed "Old Gypsy Lady" muppet, causing accidents and, eventually, results in everyone talking mock-Swedish (like the Swedish Chef). Jonathan Winters runs around terrified of the "Gypsy curse". The "Old Gypsy Lady" muppet performs several musical numbers, alongside other muppets, dressed in stereotypical Roma dress. One of the songs she performs is the song "Golden Earrings" from the 1947 film of the same name. The episode was made available on Disney+, with a content advisory attached to the episode: “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.”
• Katitzi (1979-1980), A Swedish mini series, which aired on SVT2. It was an adaptation of writer and civil rights leader Katarina Taikon's autobiographical children's books, about Katitzi (played in the series by Sema Sari), a young Roma girl in Sweden (during the first half of the 20th century). Janne ”Loffe" Carlsson portrayed Katitzi's father, while Monica Zetterlund portrayed her stepmother. Taikon co-wrote the scripts, with Roma singer (and fellow activist) Hans Caldaras providing the music.
• In Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock (1983-1987), the sentient anthropomorphic Trash Heap refers to herself as a 'gypsy Trash Heap' when she performs her only act of magic. The character "The Old Gypsy Woman" appears in several episodes.
• In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes episode "The Speckled Band" (aired 29 May 1984), the vandering Roma tribe (that Dr. Grimesby Roylott allows to stay on the grounds of his estate) plays a bigger role than in the original short story. In the short story, they are only mentioned, and briefly serve as a red herring in regard to the death of Helen Stoner's sister. In the episode, the tribe is introduced as thieves, and shown moving around the grounds of the estate with shotguns. Dr. Watson, rather than Sherlock Holmes, speculates that the Roma tribe might've had some involvement in the death of Helen's sister. Unlike in the short story, this theory does not spark instant objections from either Holmes or Watson.
• In the MacGyver episode "Thief of Budapest" (aired 13 October 1985), MacGyver goes to Budapest to get information from a Russian double-agent named Grotsky (in the form of a pocket watch, that contains a list of Soviet spies in the U.S.). While waiting for Grotsky, MacGyver catches a young Roma girl named Jana (Kelly McClain) try and pick his pocket (and take his Swiss Army knife). A few minutes later, Jana picks the pocket of Grotsky (taking the pocket watch), right before Grotsky is run over by a truck, when the KGB shows up and tries to arrest him (and prevent the information from ending up in American hands). When the KGB realizes that Jana stole the pocket watch, they have her father and brothers arrested (sending them to a prison for political prisoners, wanting Jana's family to tell them where Jana (who was away and busy trying to run from MacGyver when the police showed up) is). McGyver helps Jana get her family out of the prison. Afterwards, MacGyver seeks out a Roma fence named Reena (Sue Kiel), whom one of Jana's brothers had sold the pocket watch to. At first, Reena wants money for the pocket watch, but ends up giving it to MacGyver for free (and shows him a way out her establishment, away from the police and the KGB). Due to Jana and her family having helped him, MacGyver helps them out of the country (and arranges for them to go to the United States). When MacGyver and Jana says goodbye, he gives her his Swiss Army knife (and she gives him her necklace). While at the prison, one of Jana's brothers is harassed by an antiziganistic guard, who compares Roma to mongrel dogs and says that it is a public service to kill the Roma. Seeing this from a distance, Jana asks MacGyver "Why do they hate us?". He answers: "Some people are scared of anybody who runs free". Jana's family are depicted as street musicians. In her first scene, after MacGyver catches her, she asks him if he's Roma (because "It takes a Gypsy to catch a Gypsy". A similar line is later said by Reena). He answers: "Not that I know of".
• In the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Seer No Evil" (aired 15 November 1989) the Rangers head to a carnival. While there, they meet an old friend of Monterey Jack, a Lymantria dispar (called "gypsy moth" by Monterey Jack) named Cassandra, who is based on the stereotypical Roma fortune teller. At one point, the episode seemingly mixes up "Roma" and "Roman".
• In the Round the Twist episode "Lucky Lips" (aired 8 June 1990), Pete encounters a beautiful young Roma fortune teller (who in fact is an old lady) at a carnival, who gives him a magic lipstick that will attract any female.
• In the TaleSpin episode "Destiny Rides Again" (aired 8 February 1991), Baloo and Kit encounter a stereotypical Roma fortune teller.
• In the 'Allo 'Allo! episode "René of the Gypsies" (aired 9 March 1991), René and Edith visit a stereotypical Roma camp outside of the village, where they ask the Great Romany (the tribe's leader and a fortune-teller) to hold the tribe's annual fair in the village (intended as a cover for a Resistance operation). When the Great Romany reads Edith's palm, he becomes convinced that Edith is the long-lost Roma princess Romana (who, like Edith, had been left on a doorstep, and had an identical mark on her palm). However, he quickly changes his mind, upon hearing Edith's terrible singing voice (while Romana's mother had a great voice). He concludes that Edith's probably a distant cousin of Romana (noting that the tribe have left a lot of babies on doorsteps). The Roma tribe agrees to do the fair, but cancels after seeing a bad omen (a cat walking backward). Still needing the cover for the Resistance operation, the Resistance members dress up as Roma and hold the fair themselves. 'Allo 'Allo! is set during the German occupation of France during World War II, with the episode making no reference to Nazi antiziganism. The occupying Germans both gives permission for the fair, and happily attend it. Upon learning that she was likely born Roma, Edith expresses an attraction toward the Roma way of life, which she sums up as "Living here in the open air, singing round the campfire every evening".
• In the Married... with Children episode "Psychic Avengers" (aired 1 March 1992), the Bundy family sets up a scam psychic hotline called Madame Zelda. When their business grows large, they come into conflict with Madame Inga (Candice Azzara), a stereotypical Roma fortune-teller from Sweden, who is a real psychic. Madame Inga places a curse upon the Bundy family. Transforming them into monkeys, while their dog is transformed into a human.
• Heartbeat (1992–2010):
  • In "Outsiders" (aired 29 May 1992), a Roma circus family arrives with their trailer in Aidensfield. The father of the family had been a local man, who had fallen in love with a Roma woman, and left the village of Aidensfield with her. In the episode, the couple (and their two sons) have returned to Aidensfield, as the father is about to die from cancer, and they wanted him to die in his home. The arrival of the family is met with antiziganism from both locals and the police force, with exception of Police constable Nick Rowan (who have recently moved with his wife to the village from London). Rowan refuses to get rid of the family, on the grounds that they haven't committed any crimes. A local vicar describes the situation with the Roma, as the problem not being so much what they do, as much as the prejudice that they bring out in people. During their stay in Aidensfield, the oldest son (Milos), becomes close to the vicar's daughter, Anna. Anna is engaged to a young local, who dislikes the Roma. Anna's fiancé tries to frame Milos for a series of crimes, but Rowan uncovers the plot, and Milos is proven innocent. At the end of the episode, the Roma family leaves Aidensfield. Anna, who has fallen in love with Milos, leaves with them.
  • In "Expectations" (aired 10 September 1995), an old Roma woman comes to Aidensfield with her caravan. She is subjected to antiziganism from the locals, and has her caravan burned down by a teenaged troublemaker. The old woman reveals that she had a baby, at a young age, but was not allowed to keep her baby. She had then spent much of her life in institutions.
  • "In On The Act" (aired 7 December 1997), a traveling fair comes to Aidensfield. One of the attractions is a stereotypical Roma fortune-teller named "Gipsy Sarah".
  • In "The Traveller" (aired 3 December 2000), an English Traveller named Johnny Lee (David Essex) arrives with his trailer in Aidensfield. At the same time, a group of Irish Travellers, who Johnny notes have nothing to do with him, also arrives with their own caravans, trailers, and trucks for a horse fair (which Johnny also has come for). When Police Sergeant Craddock meets Johnny, Craddock uses the term "Gypsies". Johnny corrects him: "We call ourselves Travellers. It's only very rude and ignorant people who calls us Gypsies". The presence of Johnny and the Irish Travellers spark prejudice from Craddock, and the Aidensfield Arms landlord Oscar Blaketon, while most other locals treat them with kindness. The plot of the episode has Johnny encounter a young, and comically inept would-be robber named Nathaniel Cooper (who screwed up his first attempt at a robbery, and shot himself in the foot, then shot one of the tires of his getaway car). Realizing that Nathaniel is no real criminal, Johnny decides to hide Nathaniel from the police. However, when Nathaniel steals money from the Aidensfield Arms (an act that Blaketon is quick to blame the Travellers for), Johnny changes his mind about Nathaniel. He tells Nathaniel that he had no right to steal that money (which Johnny gives back to Blaketon), and asks Nathaniel to turn himself in, but Nathaniel refuses and leaves. Johnny then helps the police track down and apprehend Nathaniel. Meanwhile, the Irish Travellers, and the show's "lovable rogue" Claude Greengrass, organise an illegal trap-racing meeting in the streets of Aidensfield.
  • In "Danse Macabre" (aired 27 July 2008), a Roma group arrives in Aidensfield. A local shop owner spots one of them, and tells her daughter not to let him in. The shop owner says: "I'm not having Gypsies in my shop". When a 15-year-old girl named Natalie disappears from a house, the butler of the house blames the Roma and states that "Gypsies steal children". However, Police constable Joe Mason (Joe McFadden) dismisses that notion as something that only happens in fairy tales. In an ironic twist, Natalie is revealed to be a Roma child (her father's among the newly arrived group, and she had run away to see him), whom the butler had taken from her family years earlier (with Natalie's father having spent ten years searching for her).
  • In "Living Off The Land" (2 November 2008), PC Mason visits a camp of Travellers, who the episode seemingly mixes up with Hippies (called both "Travellers" and "Hippies" onscreen). They are shown living in tents and buses (the latter painted in Hippie-style). One of them tell PC Mason that: "We're Travellers. All we want is to be free, and live off the land".
• In the Dinosaurs episode "Little Boy Boo" (aired 30 October 1992), Robbie tells his little brother a scary tale, where Robbie becomes a werewolf-like creature called a "wereman". In the tale, their grandmother is cast as a stereotypical Roma fortune teller, complete with the caravan, crystal ball and tarot cards.
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles/The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1992-1996)
  • In "Barcelona, May 1917" (aired 12 October 1992, later edited into the film Espionage Escapades9, a young Indiana Jones catches the eye of a young flamenco dancer named Juanita, in a café in Barcelona, Spain.
  • In "Transylvania, January 1918" (unaired, later edited into the film Masks of Evil), the female lead is a woman named Maria Straussler (possibly roma), who works for Allied intelligence during World War I (though, out of the story's seven Allied agents, counting one double agent, Maria is the only one whose nationality is left unsaid). The story begins with a young Indiana Jones (then working for French intelligence) arriving in Venice, where he encounters an old fortune teller. The old woman reads Indy's future in tarot cards, but is harassed by police and arrested (for not having a license for her business), before she can finish her reading. Indy then travels to Transylvania with the American Colonel Waters, to investigate the Romanian General Mattias Targo (an adaptation of Count Dracula), where they meet Maria (and two other Allied agents). Maria is depicted as a skilled pick pocket, and an expert with knives (a skill she first uses the reassure the sexist Colonel Waters that she can take care of herself, then kill the double agent (when he reveals himself and shoots the man whom Maria loves), and finally to save the life of Indiana Jones). When they get to Targo's castle, Maria is for a few seconds possessed by a being, and calls attention to the old fortune teller's final tarot card (that Indy's been carrying with him, in his pocket). It is left unclear if Maria is supposed to be psychic, or if her possession is just another example of the castle being haunted (other examples include ball lightning, spontaneous human combustion, a bleeding ceiling, a frozen bedroom, along with a vampire (Targo) and an entire camp of the undead). Maria never becomes involved with Indiana Jones (like some sort of Bond girl), and is engaged to a French spy named François Picard (one of three agents previously sent to investigate General Targo, and disappeared). Maria and Indy are the only ones to make it out of the castle alive. They destroy Targo by driving a stake through his heart, and then head back to their superiors in Venice.
  • In the television film Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies (aired 15 October 1994), Indiana Jones and Claire Lieberman attend a Hollywood party in 1920, where they spot Pola Negri dancing with Rudolph Valentino.
  • In the television film Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father (aired 16 June 1996), a 10-year-old Indiana Jones visits Russia in 1909, with his family, and runs away with Leo Tolstoy. On their journey, the duo hitches a ride with a traveling Roma tribe, and spend the night in their camp. During the night, Imperial Cossack troops (that the government uses to rid themselves of undesirable ethnic groups) attacks the camp, setting fire to the tents and killing many of the Roma there. Indiana and Tolstoy barely make it away alive. They seek refuge at a church, only to almost be cast out by two antiziganistic priests, who mistake them for Roma.
• In the Frasier episode "Retirement is Murder" (aired 10 January 1995), Bulldog meets Niles Crane for the first time. Upon meeting Niles, Bulldog bursts out laughing and tells Frasier: "Whoa! Another one just like you. Some gypsy put a curse on your family?".
• The Simpsons (1989–present):
  • In "Lisa's Wedding" (aired 19 March 1995), Lisa Simpson is shown her future by a Roma fortune-teller. The fortune-teller specializes in foretelling doomed romances.
  • In "Bart Carny" (aired 11 January 1998), a traveling carnival comes to Springfield. In one scene, Moe Szyslak has his fortune told by a Roma fortune-teller. The main plot of the episode revolves around a carny father and son duo (possibly Roma), who are depicted as con artists, and steals the Simpson house.
  • In "Simpson Tide" (aired 29 March 1998), Milhouse Van Houten comes to school with an earring. Principal Skinner tells Milhouse that earrings are specifically forbidden by the school's dress code. When Skinner notes that people of Roma heritage are excepted from this rule, Milhouse claims to be Roma, which Skinner asks him to prove. In a faux Transylvanian accent, Milhouse says: "I 'vant' to suck your blood!". Skinner corrects Milhouse: "That's a vampire. But, uh, they're also covered".
  • In "Treehouse of Horror XII" (aired 6 November 2001), the Simpson family visit a Roma fortune teller. After Homer destroys the fortune teller's business, she places a curse on him (causing Homer's loved ones to be transformed or killed). In retaliation, Homer sics a leprechaun on the fortune teller. To Homer's surprise, the leprechaun and the fortune teller fall in love. At the end of the story, Homer and Marge attend their wedding (other guests include Kang and Kodos, hobgoblins, fairies, dragons, hobbits, ogres, with Yoda officiating the wedding). Marge (whom the curse has left covered in hair from head to toe) remarks that "The best thing about a Gypsy wedding is I'm not the hairiest woman here". When the fortune teller and the leprechaun first meet, they instantly start having sex. After they've just gotten married, they start doing it again, in full view of the wedding guests.
  • In "Treehouse of Horror XIII" (aired 3 November 2002), The Simpson family and Ned Flanders hold a séance in the hope of communicating with the spirit of Maude Flanders. Marge dresses up as a Roma fortune-teller.
  • In "The President Wore Pearls" (aired 16 November 2003), Lisa is elected student body president at Springfield Elementary. She declares an intention to take back the playground from the Roma. The episode then cuts to a stereotypical Roma family, living on the Springfield Elementary playground. When two students are playing with a frisbee, a Roma man (Rom) takes it mid-air and says "Is our frisbee now".
• In the NYPD Blue episode "Don We Now Our Gay Apparel" (aired January 3, 1995), Detective Greg Medavoy goes after a Roma family, who have scammed his elderly neighbor out of $3,000. The family operates a stereotypical fortune-teller business, fronted by a young Roma woman. When Medavoy arrests her, and her two brothers, the Roma woman says something in a foreign language and spits on him. One of the brothers informs Medavoy that she has cursed him. When Medavoy later develops a rash (which one of his co-worker says is likely just brought on by one of his numerous allergies), he starts worrying that the curse might be real.
• 1997 Greek television series Whispers of the Heart (Greek: Ψίθυροι Καρδιάς) features a wealthy architect who falls in love with a young Roma woman.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Roma in 19th Century Romania place a curse on the vampire Angelus to punish him for the murder of a teenage Roma girl (said to have been as "dumb as a post"), by restoring his human soul (and by extension, his conscience) and forcing him to feel guilt for his crimes. Angel was doomed to misery until he could enjoy a moment of pure happiness. It is later revealed that these Roma were members of the Kalderash tribe and that the character Jenny Calendar, actually Janna of the Kalderash, is a member of the tribe, who was sent to ensure the continued suffering of Angel. Under orders from her tribe, Jenny sets out to break up Angel and Buffy Summers, manipulating Angel into leaving Sunnydale. After Jenny's deception, and true identity, is exposed, the Scoobies turn against her. Jenny is soon after brutally murdered by Angelus. In an analysis of the treatment of the Roma in literature and media, Nikolina Dobreva asserts that the show deserves to be criticized for associating the Roma with curses and primitivism, for stereotyping the Roma as "irrevocably foreign" in clothing and speech, and for perpetuating the persistent air of mystery surrounding them. Dobreva, however, praises the character of Jenny Calendar, writing in 2009: "Jenny's character, despite the reversion to a few stereotypes, is arguably one of the most multi-faceted and positive representations of a female Gypsy in the past 20 years. In sharp contrast to all other Gypsy portrayals, she is technologically savvy, and, instead of resorting to incantations or obscure rituals, is able to create a computer algorithm that would make possible the restoration of Angel's soul."
  • In the episode "The Girl in Question" (aired 5 May 2004), of the spin-off Angel (1999-2004), the character of Ilona Costa Bianchi (Carole Raphaelle Davis) comments on the Roma. She says that "The Gypsies are filthy people", who uses spells. Angel makes no objections to Ilona's comments. Whenever she mentions the Roma, Ilona spits out of disgust.
• Futurama (1999-2013) features a recurring character called "Gypsy-Bot" (voiced by Tress MacNeille), a fortune-telling robot, whose design is based on the stereotypical image of a Roma fortune-teller (and is shown living in a stereotypical caravan). In the episode "Godfellas", the character is hinted at not really being psychic (and is shown trying to con money from Fry), when she responds to a question with "What am I, psychic?". In the episode "The Tip of the Zoidberg" (aired 18 August 2011), the incompetent Doctor Zoidberg subjects the employees of Planet Express to (among other things) "Gypsy curses".
• The Chilean telenovela Romané (2000) features the life of the Roma in the north of Chile.
• In The Twilight Zone "Cradle of Darkness" (aired 2 October 2002), a woman named Andrea Collins (Katherine Heigl) travels back to 1889, with the intent of assassinating the infant Adolf Hitler (thus preventing World War II). Andrea drows herself and the infant Adolf. However, a housemaid working for the Hitler family, sees Andrea's actions, and decides not to inform the family. The housemaid encounters a homeless Roma mother. She buys the Roma woman's infant son, whom housemaid passes off to the Hitler family as baby Adolf Hitler. The episode's closing narration establishes this baby as historic Adolf Hitler, the very monster that Andrea had attempted to destroy.
• The television series WB television series Charmed episode "The Eyes Have It" (aired 20 October 2002), depicted the Roma, referred to as "gypsies", as practicing a magical craft similar to those of modern-day witches. Much like the star witches in the series, the Roma possess supernatural powers and pass down family Books of Shadows.
• In the HBO series Carnivàle (2003-2005), the characters of Sophie and her mother Apollonia are said to be Roma.
• Stargate Atlantis (2004-2009), part of the Stargate science-fiction franchise, features a recurring race of humans named "Travelers". The Travelers are depicted as a nomadic people, who have lived in space for generations, and travels between planets in their own fleet of spaceships (they are one of the few human races in the franchise to possess their own spaceships).
• In the House episode "Needle in a Haystack" (aired 6 February 2007), Dr. House and his team must treat a 16-year-old Roma boy with respiratory distress. The boy's parents (who are established as having made their son drop out of school, and work for them) are played up as being anti-science and hostile towards outsiders (to the extent that they can't touch people who aren't Roma). The Doctors have to lie and distract the parents, in order to be able to examine and treat the boy. Dr. Foreman is critical of the parents, whom he feels are wasting their son's potential, and offers to help him get a job at the hospital. The boy rejects the offer, because none of the Doctors treating him are married (convincing the boy that the same would happen to him, unless he goes home with his family).
• Ashes to Ashes (2008-2010) main cast includes WPC/DC Sharon "Shaz" Granger (Montserrat Lombard), who is part Roma. The show centers around Detective Inspector Alex Drake, a woman from 2008, who is shot by a criminal and wakes up in 1981. The show's ending reveals that all of the main characters are cops, who suffered traumatic deaths, and are now in Limbo (where their souls have a chance to lay their inner demons to rest). In the case of Shaz: she had been a WPC in 1995, who had attempted to apprehend a car thief, and gotten stabbed. Her Roma heritage was revealed in the second episode of Series 2 (aired 27 April 2009). The plot has Alex trying to clear her name when she is involved in the accidental death of an English Romanichal. She uncovers a premeditated plot to murder him. The episode does include some stereotypical elements as the plot unfolds; namely the plot device of an old Roma clairvoyant and friction between the police and the Roma camp. However these stereotypes are turned on their head as the local doctor who was obsessed with the victim's wife is found guilty of poisoning and elements of police corruption. When Shaz hears one of her co-workers make antiziganistic remarks, she confronts him and reveals to him (and the rest of their co-workers) that her mother was Roma. The episode ends with Shaz being proposed to by her boyfriend, Chris Skelton, whose feelings for her has been left unchanged by the revelation of her ethnic background. In the show's finale, Shaz (along with the others) is able to leave Limbo and move on to eternal happiness.
• Lark Rise to Candleford, Series 2 Episode 1 (aired 21 December 2008) – A BBC costume drama. The village is haunted by the spirit of a young English Romany girl who drowned in the local lake.
• In the television show Criminal Minds, the fourth-season episode "Bloodlines" (aired 21 January 2009) depicts a family of Roma who kidnap little girls to marry their sons. During the abductions, the family also murders the parents of the girls. Penelope Garcia discovers that they've been doing this since, at least, 1909. In addition to kidnapping little girls, the Roma family is depicted as being highly superstitious, nomadic (living out of an RV), and as being thieves (with David Rossi stating that a lot of the Roma make their living as petty thieves). The Roma family are apprehended by the FBI, but the episode ends with another Roma family (the father of which is implied as being one of the first family's sons) getting ready to commit the same acts as them.
• In the Family Guy episode "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" (aired 29 March 2009), a cutaway gag references Stephen King's Thinner. In the cutaway, Britney Spears is cursed by a Roma man (Rom), who touches her cheek and says "Thicker".
• In the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Lost Traveller" (season 13, episode 9. Aired 30 November 2011), the detectives investigate a missing Roma boy.
• The character Willa Monday on the TV show The Finder (2012) is a Roma juvenile delinquent.
• In the Once Upon a Time episode "The Doctor" (aired 28 October 2012), there is a young Roma witch-in-training, named Trish (played by Paula Giroday), who wears clothes similar to Esmeralda in the 1996 Disney animated film. In a flashback, Rumpelstiltskin is attempting to teach Regina magic. He tries to make her crush the heart of a unicorn, thus killing it. However, Regina cannot do it, and leaves Rumpelstiltskin. She later returns, and learns that he has taken on a new apprentice: Trish, a Roma woman. Without hesitation, Regina takes Trish's heart and crushes it, killing her instantly.
• In the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode "Dead Man's Folly" (aired 30 October 2013; an adaptation of the novel of the same name), the character of Sally Legge dresses up, and plays a Roma fortune teller (called "Madame Zuleika") for a summer fête. She pretend reads Poirot's future over a crystal ball, but quickly drops the theatrics, due to a mix of Poirot's questions (regarding the murder hunt, where Sally was originally going to play the murder victim, until others insisted that she'd tell fortunes instead) and Sally's own disinterest in doing this activity.
• In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Coming Back" (aired 23 September 2013), Barney Stinson reveals why he is constantly horny: the Stinson Curse. In 1807, in Moscow, his ancestors ran over an old Roma woman. The Roma woman pointed at them and said: "hornier". Cursing the male members of their family to constantly be horny (and unable to find satisfaction in committed relationships). After she's cursed them, the old Roma woman is shown magically transforming into a seductive young Roma woman, whom Barney's ancestor is unable to resist.
• The television series Hemlock Grove (2013–2015) features a family of Roma.
• The BBC television series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) revolves around protagonist Tommy Shelby and the Shelby crime family who are of Roma heritage. It also features the Roma Lee family which includes main character Esme Lee, who marries one of the Shelby brothers.
• On the television Series What We Do in the Shadows (2019–present) the character of Nadja is a Roma Vampire.
• In the Father Brown episode "The Numbers of the Beast" (aired 13 January 2020), Mrs. McCarthy and her sister, Roisin, visit a Roma fortune teller named Trafalgar Devlin, who lives in a caravan. Devlin reads their tea leaves, and supplies them with what turns out to be the winning numbers in a charity bingo game. When it gets out that the winning numbers came from Devlin, many of the locals come to him for winning numbers and betting results. Father Brown and Penelope "Bunty" Windermere drops by his caravan for tea. While there, Father Brown drops his spoon on the floor, picks it up, and puts it back on the saucer of his teacup. Noting no reaction from Devlin, Father Brown realizes that Devlin is not actually Roma, but a con artist, as no true Roma man would permit such an unclean act. The cause for the winning bingo numbers are explained away, as another person having rigged the numbers.
• The television series 1883 (2021–2022) centers on a wagon train led by Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott), in the 1880s. Most of the people taking part in the wagon train are European immigrants, who have come to start a new life in Oregon. Among the immigrants is Noemi (Gratiela Brancusi), a young Roma woman, who has come to America with her husband and their two sons. When bandits attack the wagon train's camp, Noemi's husband is among the people killed, leaving her a widow. Out of desperation (scared and fearful of her, and her sons, future), Noemi offers herself up as a wife to the widowed Brennan, but he turns her down. Together with Thomas (LaMonica Garrett), Brennan does set out to help Noemi, seeing her struggling without her husband and facing antiziganism from some of the other immigrants. Over the course of the journey, Noemi becomes more self-sufficient, teaching herself how to hunt and use a rifle. She also becomes close to and romantically involved with Thomas, despite some initial reservations from Thomas (due to him being a black man, thus unable to marry Noemi). After two of the other immigrants, Josef and his wife, are injured and unable to drive their wagon, Noemi offers and drives their wagon for them. Together with Josef (whose wife dies), Noemi and her sons, are the only ones of the immigrants to make it to Oregon. Noemi, her sons, and Thomas settles in the Willamette Valley.
• No Mundo da Luna (2022–present) is a television series centered around a young Roma woman named Luna Lovari (played by Marina Moschen), who is an aspiring journalist. Luna attempts to get a reporter job at a newspaper. However, the editor (who has found out that Luna is Roma) only offers Luna a position writing horoscopes for the magazine (as she assumes that all Roma women are fortune tellers, and is surprised to see that Luna is not wearing a stereotypical skirt). A reluctant Luna takes the job, despite not knowing the first thing about tarot cards. She goes to her grandmother, who does. The grandmother becomes upset and says that the non-Rom think that all Roma are the same. She also tells Luna that she won't let her use their culture without knowing anything about it, while it would take her years of study to use the cards. Without her grandmother's permission, Luna takes some tarot cards that have been in the family's possession for centuries. Fleeing from her grandmother's house, Luna is followed to her car by her brother and grandmother. The grandmother says something in the Romani language (Luna, who never learned it, doesn't understand), which prompts Luna to declare that her grandmother is putting a curse on her (likely sarcastically, as Luna's shown to not believe in psychic powers) and drives off. Luna's brother remarks that Luna missed the class about "Gypsy curses" not existing. When Luna later starts using the cards, the artwork becomes animated and the figures seemingly speak to her, as if through magic. In one episode, an entertainment company sees a video from the wedding of Luna's cousin, whose wedding dress caught fire. This inspires them to plan a movie called "The Curse of the Gypsy Bride" (intended to use all clichés about the Roma), much to the annoyance of Luna. A reluctant Luna takes part in a press event for the movie, together with the two (non-Roma) actors cast to play the leads. The lead actress expresses a fear of the Roma, and asks if they still live in tents (and travels around Europe). Eventually, Luna has had enough and tells everyone off for reducing the rich Roma culture to stereotypes. The planned film is shot down, after a video of the event leaks online, and results in the entertainment company being bombarded with allegations of racism and cultural appropriation (with the internet not being too happy about them not even casting real Roma actors for the two leads). In the same episode, Luna informs her grandmother about the tarot cards, which comes as a surprise to the grandmother (as it is not something that ordinary tarot cards does). At the end of the season, her grandmother seemingly destroys the tarot cards (having done some research, and discovered that they are dangerous), by pouring water on them.

Film

Roma characters are frequently depicted in werewolf films, including Maleva the fortuneteller (Maria Ouspenskaya) in The Wolf Man and the Roma clan of female werewolves in Cry of the Werewolf.

Year	Title	Country	Notes
2021	The Cursed	US	Set in late-19th century France, town leaders including the local baron organize the decimation of a Roma clan which dispute ownership of land within their sphere of influence. Before dying, the last of the Roma set a curse upon their families; terrifying events ensue. A pathologist investigates alleged animal attacks and missing children.
2020	The Secrets We Keep	US	Housewife Maja Reid (Noomi Rapace) is a Roma Holocaust survivor, who struggles with PTSD and survivor's guilt. Set in the late 1950s, Maja encounters a man named Thomas Steinman, whom she recognizes as a German soldier, who had raped her 15 years earlier, and been involved with the murder of Maja's sister. Maja kidnaps Thomas, intending to kill him, but find herself incapable of shooting him. With the help of her non-Roma husband, Maja keeps Thomas captive in their basement, while they investigate if Thomas really is the man who harmed her, and Maja attempts to learn the details of her sister's murder (only remembering fragments herself). Maja was originally going to be Jewish. However, the casting of Rapace, who might be of Roma heritage on her father's side, led to Maja being changed to Roma.
2019	Gipsy Queen	Germany	Centers around a Roma immigrant, from Romania, who is an unmarried mother (which caused her to be disowned by her father) and supports herself, and her children, by working as a cleaner in Hamburg. Upon discovering a boxing ring, she starts to box again, having done it growing up.
2019	Doctor Sleep	US	The spirit Dick Hallorann implies that the film's antagonists, a cult of psychic vampires, began as a group of Roma. The film depicts the antagonists as nomads, who abducts and murders children.
2018	The Man Who Killed Don Quixote	UK	Óscar Jaenada portrays a mysterious Roma man, who keeps crossing paths with the film's main protagonist. The Roma man is a comedic figure, and a peddler, who steals a police car.
2018	Carmen & Lola	Spain	A love story of two Roma lesbians.
2014-2019	John Wick (franchise)	US	Dir. : Chad Stahelski. John Wick (aka Jardani Jovonovich), is a Belarusian Ruska Roma.
2014	Io rom romantica	Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina	Coming of age comedy following a young romani girl living in Torino, Italy.
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	US	Roma villain – Bane.
2011	Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance	US	Danny Ketch is the son of Mephistopheles, and a Roma woman named Nadya Ketch.
2011	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows	US	The film's female lead, Madame Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace), is Roma. Simza is searching for her brother, who've come under the influence of Professor Moriarty. Simza joins forces with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, after they seek her out at a Roma camp in France. When first introduced, Simza is shown to be working as a fortune teller. When an assassin, sent by Moriarty (fearing that her brother's told her something about his plans), tries to kill her, Simza proves herself a skilled fighter and knife thrower. In a conversation with Holmes, Simza reveals herself to once having been a member of an anarchist group (as had her brother), but had left when it had become too radical for her and her brother. After Moriarty commits an act of terror in Paris, Simza spots members of the National Gendarmerie questioning members of the public. She becomes nervous, due to her (being Roma) not having papers. Simza's tribe allies itself with Holmes and Watson, helping them across borders and delivering Moritarty's notebook to Dr. Watson's wife. Together with Holmes and Watson, Simza sets out to prevent her brother from committing an assassination, that could cause spark a war between the nations of Europa.
2010	The Wolfman	US	A group of Roma are camped outside a town in the film and blamed by the townspeople for the death of the main character's brother. The main character visits a fortune teller among them named Maleva, played by Geraldine Chaplin, who informs him of his brother's curse. Later on the titular Wolfman rampages in their camp.
2009	Sherlock Holmes	US	Holmes and Watson comes across a Roma Fortune teller, named Flora (Bronagh Gallagher), while walking the streets of London. Flora starts to read Watson, having deep insight into Watson's personal life. Watson soon realizes that Holmes had arranged the whole thing (to discourage Watson's romantic relationship with his fiancée).
2009	Drag Me to Hell	US	Dir. : Sam Raimi. Horror. An ambitious bank worker incurs the wrath of an elderly Roma woman (Sylvia Ganush), played by Lorna Raver, who places an ancient curse on her.
2009	Korkoro	France	A Roma family travels the roads of Vichy France during the Second World War. They learn that a new law forbids them from being nomadic. Depicts the rarely documented subject of Porajmos (the Romanies Holocaust).
2008	Khamsa	France	The main character, Marco/Khamsa is half-Roma, half-Algerian. Most of the main characters are his Roma relatives, who live together in a camp in the city.
2008	Filth and Wisdom	UK Ukraine	Ukrainian Rom lives in London
2008	Stone of Destiny	UK	Scottish nationalists bury the Stone of Scone in a field. They return to find a Romanichal camp, and one barters with the Romany leader for the stone.
2006	Children of Men	UK US	Features a Roma woman called Marichka in the refugee camp. At one point when she is trying to help the mother and baby escape, Marichka and the woman engage in a tug of war with the baby, recalling the stereotype of Roma stealing babies. Based on the P.D. James novel.
2006	Transylvania	France	Italian woman pursues a Roma violinist across Europe.
2006	The Indian and the Nurse	Czech Republic	Roma nurse and non-Rom in love.
2005	Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa	Japan	Roma character Noa is pursued by Nazis.
2004	Van Helsing	US	Kate Beckinsale plays Princess Anna Valerious, whose father is identified as having been "King of the Gypsies". Dracula is revealed to have been a son of Anna's direct ancestor.
2003	Japigia Gagi Roma Stories	Italy	Documentary by Giovanni Princigalli who lived one year in an illegal camp of Roms of Romania emigrated in Italy
2003	Holes	US	Roma friend.
2002	Swing	France Japan	Max becomes friends with Swing, a Roma tomboy, who shows him nature and takes him to exuberant music evenings.
2002	The Hunchback of Notre Dame II	US	Sequel to the 1996 Disney animated adaptation, set some years after the first film. The Roma are depicted as having become an accepted part of Paris, since the first movie. The plot of the movie deals with a traveling circus of thieves coming to Paris. The nomadic lifestyle of the circus is briefly compared to the Roma. However, dialogue indicate that the people from the circus are not Roma.
2001	Hannibal	US	Corrupt Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi hires a Roma pickpocket to acquire a fingerprint from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The pickpocket manages to acquire it, but Dr. Lecter fatally stabs him. Pazzi lets the pickpocket bleed to death.
2001	Brotherhood of the Wolf	France	Set during the French Revolution, the film features a group of Roma bandits and a witch as antagonists.
2001	Gypsy Woman	UK	Starring Jack Davenport and Neve McIntosh.
2000	Chocolat	UK France	Johnny Depp plays Rom love interest of mysterious chocolatier Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche). A flashback establishes that Vianne's mother (Chitza) was from Central America. Chitza is said to have been one of "the Wanderers". A people who moved with the north wind, from village to village, never settling down. Chitza had been taken to France by Vianne's French father (a good catholic, whom the seductive Chitza had made willing to "bend the rules of good Christian courtship"), but he awoke one morning to find both Chitza and Vianne gone, due to the nomadic nature of Chitza's people. Vianne continued this nomadic lifestyle with her own daughter.
2000	The Man Who Cried	UK France	Johnny Depp portrays Rom in France.
2000	Geppetto	US	TV Remake.
1998	Train de Vie	France et al	A group of fleeing Jews meet up with a large group of Roma.
1998	Black Cat, White Cat	Serbia	Roma central characters.
1998	The Red Violin	Canada	The Roma takes the red violin across Europe from Vienna to Oxford over a century.
1997	Gadjo dilo	France	French lives with Romanies in Romania.
1997	The Hunchback	New Zealand	TV adaptation.
1996	Thinner	US	Man cursed by the Roma after killing one. Early in the film, a young Roma woman pulls up her skirt, in public, and shows the main character her underwear (along with offering a peak at her breasts).
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	US	An animated adaptation by Burbank Animation Studios. Not to be confused with the Disney version, released the same year.
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	US	An animated adaptation by Jetlag Productions. Not to be confused with the Disney version, released the same year.
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	US	An animated adaptation by Golden Films. Not to be confused with the Disney version, released the same year.
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	US	Animated Disney adaptation. Esmeralda is depicted as Roma by birth. Esmeralda ends up marrying Captain Phoebus. Quasimodo's mother is depicted as a Roma and a loving mother, who was killed by Judge Claude Frollo, when she and her husband attempted to enter Paris (which is established to be illegal for the Roma to do). Esmeralda was originally included in the Disney Princess franchise (a lineup of female protagonists who have appeared in various Disney franchises), but ended up being removed. She is one of out only two characters (the other being Tinker Bell) to be removed.
1995	Dracula: Dead and Loving It	US	Anne Bancroft portrays Madame Ouspenskaya, a parody of Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), the Roma woman in The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
1995	Haunted	UK	Starring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale, an old Romanichal fortune reads the palms of two characters.
1994	Yrrol	Sweden	Sketch comedy, which jumps between different characters. Two of the characters are an apparently married couple, who are both blind. Their disability has somehow kept them both from discovering that he is a (racist) skinhead, and that she is Roma (wearing the blouse and skirt of Finnish Kale, though the film seemingly frames her as a generic Roma woman).
1993	Latcho Drom	France	The journey of the Roma told through musicians and dancers of India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungry, Slovakia, France and Spain.
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula	US	Unchanged from the original text it was adapted from, Dracula's henchmen are Roma.
1988	Time of the Gypsies	Yugoslavia	Telekinetic Roma in realistic community at home, and in Italy.
1988	The Raggedy Rawney	UK	Starring Dexter Fletcher and Zoë Wanamaker, about a young soldier who falls in with a Roma camp.
1986	Tras el cristal	Spain	Dir.: Agustí Villaronga.
1985	The Black Cauldron	US	A Roma woman dances on a table for the enjoyment of the Horned King's men.
1983	Angelo My Love	US	All-Roma cast; dir.: Robert Duvall.
1982	Corre, gitano	Spain	Romanies from Granada and Seville.
1982	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	UK US	TV adaptation. Lesley-Anne Down as Esmeralda. In the film, Frollo asks Esmeralda if she is Roma. She responds: "They tell me so, I don't know." Clopin forces Esmeralda to dance for the people of Paris as a distraction while the Roma pick their pockets.
1979	Tsygan	USSR	A Roma child was adopted by a Russian woman; after 17 years, a single elderly Roma man (Rom) appears in the village and gains the respect and love of the boy, disturbing the peace of the family (Цыган).
1978	King of the Gypsies	US	The Romani population of New York City comes into conflict with modernity when confronted with ancient traditions historically used to select a new king. Starring: Judd Hirsch, Eric Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Brooke Shields.
1977	Count Dracula	UK	As adapted from the original text, Dracula's henchmen are Roma.
1977	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	UK	TV adaptation.
1976	Rosy Dreams	Czechoslovakia	Roma and non-Roma lovers, societies.
1975	Tabor ukhodit v Nebo	USSR	Free-spirited Gypsy central characters; US title: Queen of the Gypsies. Loosely based on short stories ("Makar Chudra" and "Old Izergil") by Maxim Gorky.
1970	Count Dracula	Spain Italy Germany UK	Unchanged from the original text it was adapted from, Dracula's henchmen are Roma.
1969	The Valley of Gwangi	US	A group of Roma try to dissuade the main characters from stealing prehistoric animals from the titular "Lost Valley" for their circus on the grounds that they will suffer a curse. Later, a Roma character frees the title character Gwangi from his cage.
1967	I Even Met Happy Gypsies	Yugoslavia	Realistic Roma central characters.
1966	Sky West and Crooked	UK	Inspired by the novel The Gypsy and the Gentleman by D. H. Lawrence. A young girl played by Hayley Mills finds happiness and friendship with a young English Romany played by Ian McShane.
1963	From Russia with Love	UK	James Bond in Roma camp in Turkey. Two Roma girls, both in love with the same man, fight each other either to the death (the fight is interrupted by an outside attack) or until one of them surrenders (with the loser being forever banished from the tribe). The local MI6 chief, Ali Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz), identifies this act as "the Gypsy way". Bey notes that if both girls quit the fighting, the tribe's elders will decide which of the two gets to marry the man. However, the two girls are shown being unable to control themselves, when the non-violent option is given to them. After the attack, Bond asks the tribe's leader to end the girls fighting. The leader decide to leave it up to Bond, to resolve the dispute. The two girls are brought to Bond, who is told that they're both his. Bond is implied to sleep with both girls.
1961	Babes in Toyland	US	Barnaby's henchmen sells Tom (Tom Sands) to a Roma tribe (having heard that Roma people buy babies, and figure they might do the same for young Tom). Barnaby later hire the same tribe to provide entertainment for a wedding. The tribe performs a musical number, which romanticises Romani life. Among the tribe is Floretta, an old Roma fortune-teller, who reveals herself to be Tom in disguise.
1958	Touch of Evil	US	Roma fortune-teller.
1956	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	France Italy	Sound adaptation.
1955	The Night of the Hunter	US	Drama.
1951	My Favourite Spy	US	Comedy.
1950	Gone to Earth	UK	Roma love interest.
1949	Singoalla	Sweden France	The Roma are depicted as uncivilised thieves. The film features many Roma actors (including future civil rights leader and writer Katarina Taikon), who all regretted participating in a racist movie.
1949	Black Magic	US Italy	Roma character Balsamo in France.
1949	The Queen of Spades	UK	Russian Romanies.
1948	The Loves of Carmen	US	Rita Hayworth is Carmen.
1948	Secret Beyond the Door	US	Mexican Romanies.
1947	Folket i Simlångsdalen	Sweden	Based on Fredrik Ström's 1903 novel of the same name. Roma men (Roms) are depicted as drunkards and fighters, who are prone to pulling out knives. Roma women are depicted as seductive, and ready to jump into bed with anyone.
1947	Golden Earrings	US	Marlene Dietrich plays a Roma woman named Lydia. Lydia helps the film's protagonist get across Germany (during World War II) with her horse and wagon by dressing him up as a Roma man to hide him from the Nazis.
1946	Caravan	UK	An American marries a Spanish Roma in Spain.
1944	House of Frankenstein	US	Dr. Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff) and the hunchbacked Daniel (J. Carrol Naish) comes across a Roma camp, where Daniel falls in love with the Roma dancing girl Ilonka (Elena Verdugo). Police officers drive away the Roma, accusing them of stealing in the nearby village of Vasaria. A Roma man whips Ilonka, after she refuses to give him the money that she's earned dancing, and threatens to tell the police that the stealing had been done by him. Ilonka is rescued by Daniel, who takes the unconscious Ilonka with them. Ilonka does not return Daniel's feelings, and falls in love with Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.). After learning that Larry is a werewolf, Ilonka still loves him. Seeing Larry's suffering, and knowing that the Wolf Man is killing people, a heartbroken Ilonka forges a silver bullet (knowing that the bullet needs to be fired by someone who loves and understands the cursed person). She aims a gun at Larry, but cannot bring herself to kill the man that she loves. Moments later, Larry transforms into the Wolf Man, and mortally wounds Ilonka. During the attack, Ilonka shoots the Wolf Man, killing him. With the last of her strength, Ilonka crawls over to Larry and dies embracing him. Her death turns Daniel against Dr. Niemann, declaring Ilonka as having been the only thing that he ever loved. The film was written by Edward T. Lowe, who had also written the screenplay for the 1923 film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
1944	Cry of the Werewolf	US	Roma werewolves.
1944	Gypsy Wildcat	US	Roma love interest.
1943	I Mörkaste Småland	Sweden	Potentially one of the most racist movies ever made in Sweden. A group of Roma moves into an empty cabin, against the wishes of the cabin's owner. The Roma are shown to steal, and do minor work for the local farmers (who fears what might happen, if they refuse the Roma). In the end, the farmers have had enough, and throw out the Roma (and their stolen goods). The film presents it as justice having been done.
1943	For Whom the Bell Tolls	US	Roma character Rafael in Spain.
1943	Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man	US	After Larry Talbot is brought back to life, he seeks out Roma fortune-teller Maleva. Maleva takes pity on him, promising to take care of him and treat him like if he was her own son. Maleva travels with Larry to the villager of Vasaria, in hope of finding Dr. Frankenstein, who might be able to cure Larry. Larry turns into the Wolf Man and kills a girl. Angry villagers corners Maleva, who is arrested, but later released to help Baroness Elsa Frankenstein and Dr. Frank Mannering finding both Larry and The Frankenstein Monster.
1941	The Wolf Man	US	Roma fortune-teller. The film's main character becomes a werewolf, after being bitten by a werewolf (who was Roma).
1940	Pinocchio	US	Roma villain – Stromboli (identified as Roma by "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow).
1939	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	US	Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara) is depicted as being Roma by birth. Early in the film, a group of Roma (among them is Esmeralda) attempt to enter Paris, but is kept out by soldiers for being foreigners (only Esmeralda is able to sneak past the guards). A Roma man kindly tells a French soldier: "Foreigners? You [the French] came yesterday, we come today". Frollo is depicted as the Chief Justice of Paris, who persecutes Esmeralda on the basis of her race. He insists that she comes from an evil race, who engages in witchcraft and magic. Esmeralda protests that Frollo knows nothing about her people, and questions him if they really had the power of magic, would they choose to be outcasts (always poor and persecuted)? In the same scene, King Louis XI tells Esmeralda that people tell him that the Roma are a lot of thieves. Esmeralda tells him that it is not true, and that they only steal whenever they are hungry. Screenwriter Sonya Levien made the story relevant to the time that the film was made, with the persecution in the film being a parallel to what was going on in Germany prior to World War II.
1937	Heidi	US	In an effort to get rid of Heidi (Shirley Temple), Fräulein Rottenmeier tries to sell the girl to some Roma, but the girl manages to escape before they can take her away.
1936	Professional Soldier	US	Rita Hayworth (then Rita Cansino) portrays a Roma Dancer.
1936	The Bohemian Girl	US	Comedy with Laurel and Hardy as a pair of misfit Roma men (Roms). The Roma are shown pickpocketing and fortune telling. An evil count persecutes the Roma, which (combined with her lover being lashed) causes Hardy's wife to kidnap the count's daughter, whom she fools Hardy (who believes anything that his wife tells him) into believing to be their daughter. After his wife elopes with her lover, Hardy raises the girl together with Laurel. Despite the stereotypes in the film, it ended up being banned in Nazi Germany for having a positive depiction of Roma.
1935	The Bride of Frankenstein	US	A Roma family (father, mother, daughter, and grandmother) is shown having set up camp in the woods, and are sitting around their camp fire. Fearful of the Monster (who has harmed and killed numerous people, including two young girls), the mother is protective of her daughter, Aurora, and insists that the girl stays close to her. The mother thinks that they should leave this place, but the father assures her that there is nothing to worry about, as the Monster's locked up in prison. Moments later, the Monster arrives at the camp. The three Roma women flee the camp in horror, while the father tries in vain to fend off the Monster.
1934	The Little Minister	US	The heroine poses as a roma.
1927	The Unknown	US	Roma love interest.
1923	The Spanish Dancer	US	Pola Negri stars as Maritana, a Roma fortune teller.
1923	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	US	Roma woman Esmeralda helps the Hunchback. A flashback shows the infant Esmeralda being kidnapped by two Roma women. She is established as later having been bought from them by Clopin.
1918	Set Free	US	Comedy about a wealthy young woman, named Roma Wycliffe (Edith Roberts), who learns that her late grandmother was Roma. She dresses up in stereotypical clothing, and sets out to live out the freedom of Roma life.
1918	Carmen	Germany	Pola Negri is Carmen. In 1921, the film was released in the United States under the title "Gypsy Blood".
1917	The Darling of Paris	US	Adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. In this version, Esmeralda is depicted as a wealthy girl whom Romanies kidnapped at birth. The film ends with Esmeralda having been reunited with her wealthy family.
1916	The Vagabond	US	Edna Purviance plays a young woman, who had been abducted by a Roma tribe when she was a young girl. The tribe uses her as a servant, with the Chieftain whipping her mercilessly. The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin), a beggar, rescues her. During their escape, Chieftain attempts to drown the Tramp. Chaplin was himself of Roma heritage, which might have influenced the creation of the Tramp.
1915	Carmen	US	Geraldine Farrar is Carmen.
1913	The Gypsy Queen	US	Comedy short.
1913	The Student of Prague	German Empire	Roma love interest.
1911	The Spanish Gypsy	US	Short film directed by D. W. Griffith.
1908	The Adventures of Dollie	US	A Roma man attempts to rob a woman, but is stopped by the woman's husband. The Roma man later returns and kidnaps their little daughter, Dollie. Dollie is put in a wooden barrel. When the Roma attempts to escape in their wagon across a river, the barrel ends up in the water and is swept downstream in dangerous currents. The film was the directoral debut of D. W. Griffith.
1905	Rescued by Rover	UK	Roma villain: a beggar woman, who steals a baby. The film was among the biggest international hits of the era.
1905	Esmeralda	France	The oldest adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

See also

• Gypsy (term)
• Antiziganism
• Romani literature

Further reading

• Glajar, Valentina; Radulescu, Domnica, eds. (2008). "Gypsies" in European literature and culture. New York, NY, USA: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-349-37154-9. OCLC 156831916.

• Matthews, Jodie (30 November 2018). The Gypsy Woman: Representations in literature and visual culture. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781788313810. OCLC 1226174067.

• Mladenova, Radmila (2019). Patterns of Symbolic Violence: The Motif of 'Gypsy' Child-theft across Visual Media (in English and German). Heidelburg University Publishing. doi:10.17885/heiup.483. ISBN 978-3-947732-47-0. OCLC 1126195043.

• Mladenova, Radmila (2022). The ‘White’ Mask and the ‘Gypsy’ Mask in Film. Heidelburg University Publishing. doi:10.17885/heiup.989. ISBN 978-3-96822-131-1. OCLC 1369310763.

• Mladenova, Radmila; et al., eds. (2020). Antigypsyism and Film / Antiziganismus und Film (in English and German). Heidelburg University Publishing. doi:10.17885/heiup.650. ISBN 978-3-96822-012-3.