Romani people in fiction

A Roma family travelling (1837 print)

Many fictional depictions of the Romani emphasize their supposed mystical powers. Romani often appear in fiction as nomads or a sort of supernatural Deus ex machina.

Literature

• Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering
• George Borrow's novel Lavengro
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem/novel Aurora Leigh, where Marian Erle is Rom.
• Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
• Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Speckled Band
• Miguel de Cervantes' novel La Gitanilla
• Georges Bizet's opera Carmen
• Prosper Mérimée's short story "Carmen"
• Ana Castillo's novel Peel My Love Like an Onion
• Dracula by Bram Stoker features a group of Romanies working for the Count.
• Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
• The Lyre of Orpheus and The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies features major characters who maintain Romani traditions, including the care and repair of musical instruments, in modern Canada.
• Stephen King's novel Thinner includes the classic plot device of the Romani curse. It was also made into a movie.
• Romani appear in several short stories by the great French writer Guy de Maupassant.
• Canadian contemporary fantasy author Charles de Lint's novel Mulengro presents a portrayal of the Romani and their cultural myths.
• Rumer Godden's children's book 'The Diddakoi' (also published as Gypsy Girl, 1972}, winner of the Whitbread Award. Adapted for television by the BBC as Kizzy.
• Montoyas y Tarantos by Saura.
• The James Bond novel (and movie) From Russia with Love set in a gypsy encampment in Turkey, features a traditional fight to the death between two gypsy girls vying for the affection of the same man.
• The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway featured a Romani named Rafael.
• The The Adventures of Tintin comic book The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé features several Romani characters and a few Romani words. This graphic novel is very sympathetic to the Romani characters.
• A Romani character and references to Romani appear in the Otherland series of science fiction books by Tad Williams. They appear in part as nomads who disregard the borders of an advanced virtual reality cyberspace.
• Isabel Allende's novel "Zorro" features a clan of Roma who ally themselves with the titular hero in post-Napoleonic Spain.
• Colum McCann's novel Zoli, exploring the life of a fictional Slovak Romani artist
• Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy features a nomadic race called the Gyptians. Gyptians are roughly the equivalent of Gypsies in our universe, with the exception that they use narrowboats in place of caravans. Throughout the books they are portrayed as good and kindly people.
• Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series of fantasy novels includes the Tsingani, based on the Roma.
• In Paulo Coelho's novel, The Witch of Portobello, the character Athena's biological mother is a Gypsy.
• In Saki's short story 'Esme'(included in the Chronicles of Clovis), a gypsy child is devoured by a hyena.
• 1911- Saki's short story 'Esme'in 'the Chronicles of Clovis', features a degrading depiction of a gypsy child that is used to foreground the heartless nature of the English aristocrats.
• The latter half of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series features the Romani in a hugely positive light, most prominent in Being A Green Mother.

Film

Year	Title	Country	Notes
2006	Transylvania	France	Italian lives with Roma in Romania
2006	The Indian and the Nurse	Czech Republic	Romani nurse and non-Rom in love.
2006	Borat		Lead character claims to have been Gypsy hunter, has Gypsy tears vial.
2005	Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa	Japan	Anime with Romani character Noa.
2000	Chocolat		Johnny Depp is Rom in France.
2000	The Man Who Cried	France	Johnny Depp is Rom in France.
1998	Black Cat, White Cat	Serbia	Romani central characters.
1997	Gadjo dilo	France	French lives with Roma in Romania.
1996	Thinner		Man cursed by gypsies after killing one.
1988	Time of the Gypsies	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Telekinetic Rom in realistic community at home, and in Italy.
1983	Angelo My Love		All-Romani cast; dir.: Robert Duvall.
1976	Rosy Dreams	Slovakia	Romani—non-Romani lovers, societies.
1975	A Gypsy Camp Rides Off to Heaven	Russia Ukraine Moldova	Free-spirited Gypsies central characters; US title: Queen of the Gypsies.
1967	I Even Met Happy Gypsies	Serbia	Realistic Romani central characters.
1965	Pearls of the Deep	Czech Republic	5 shorts − last: 24-min. Romance with Romani female lead; dir.: Jaromil Jireš.
1965	Sheriff Behind Bars		Among prisoners is a Rom.
1963	From Russia With Love		007 in Gypsy camp in Turkey.
1963	Let Him Who Is without Sin...		Romani soldier copes with love, hate.
1947	Golden Earrings		Marlene Dietrich is Hungarian Gypsy in Germany, other Romani characters.
1946	Caravan		American marries Gypsy in Spain.
1944	Cry of the Werewolf		Romani werewolves.
1943	For Whom the Bell Tolls		Romani character Rafael in Spain.
1941	The Wolf Man		Romani fortune-teller.
1922	Gypsy Love	Austria	Dir.: Thomas E. Walsh.
1921	Gypsies	Czech Republic	Count's son brought up by Gypsies.
1921	Jánošík	Slovakia	Romani woman helps capture hero.
1918	Carmen	Germany	Pola Negri is Carmen; dir.: E. Lubitsch.
1915	Carmen		Dir.: Cecil B. DeMille.
1908	Drama in a Gypsy Camp	Russia	2-minute scripted story.
1897	A Camp of Zingari Gypsies		1-min. document, Roma in Hungary.

Other media

• The Chilean telenovela Romané features the life of the Romani in the north of Chile.
• Serbian director Emir Kusturica often used the Romani community as basis of his films, for instance, Time of the Gypsies and Black Cat, White Cat.
• 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.
• In 2002 the WB television series Charmed aired the episode "The Eyes Have It" which explained Gypsies to be distant relatives to modern day witches. Much like the star witches in the series Gypsies possess supernatural powers and pass down family Books of Shadows.
• On the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gypsies place a curse on the vampire Angelus to punish him for the murder of one of their tribe, by restoring his human soul (and by extension, his conscience) and forcing him to feel guilt for his crimes.
• The videogame Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King features Roma characters Kalderasha, named after the Kalderash, and his daughter Valentina.
• The Robert Duvall film Angelo My Love.
• In The Andy Griffith Show, episode 183 in the sixth season is titled "The Gypsies". A family of Gypsies (one of whom is played by Jamie Farr) places a curse on the town of Mayberry.
• In the Star Wars New Jedi Order series of books, the Ryn race are inspired by the Roma.
• A 2007 episode of the television series House features a Rom patient and family.
• In Train de Vie, a group of fleeing Jews meet up with a large group of Roma.
• In the Horror Role-Playing Game Vampire:The Masquerade, the Ravnos clan has Rom roots.
• Meggan of the Marvel comics superhero team Excalibur was born to a band of Roma wandering through England. She was expelled when they saw that she was a shapeshifter, and believed her to be a demon.
• In the anime Cowboy Bebop, the character Faye Valentine claims to be one of the Roma people, though this is later dispelled through her own personal flashbacks, and video of Faye as a child where she is shown as being from a very wealthy family. Also, her time in cryogenic stasis wiped out much of Faye's childhood memory. Her very name was given to her by the doctors who woke her from her sleep.
• In the Batman series of comics, the character Richard Grayson (a.k.a Robin and Nightwing) is shown to be of Romani descent.
• While the canonical origin of the supervillain Doctor Doom has varied over the decades, he is usually of the Roma people, and was driven to his nominally villainous actions as a response to the persecution of his family.