Veijo Baltzar

Curriculum vitae

Veijo Baltzar was born in 1942 near Kuopio in middle - Finland. His roots were strongly in Rautalampi, a little village, were his ancestors had arrived in the 15th century. His father was a horseman, mother beggar and craftswoman. Baltzar spent his childhood in wagons with his parents, six brothers and four sisters. The nights were spent under the stars, in saunas and sheds. The days they wandered. The food was obtained by begging or by working for farmhouses. Hunger, coldness, external persecution and fear were familiar visitors, like they have been for the Roma for hundreds of years when they travelled as a minority in every country. Still life itself, great emotions, safetyness and love were strongly present in the family. In between strong human relationships the children learnt their moral and identity, where from all the conventions naturally appear. The family had collective responsibility for it’s honour, it supervised its members and the siblings held each other in order. Blood revenge was a guarantee for the safetyness of the community when police or judicial system had no concrete position.

Fourteen-year-old Veijo Baltzar left his family and joined one caravan. He wanted to find real life from Northern-Finland: Kainuu, Kuhmo and Suomussalmi. The big Roma caravan roamed through rugged fir forests, wolves howled, drunken log-workers chased them and horses got stuck in the deep snow. For nights they camped under the trees in huts made of fir branches. During the wandering in north Baltzar found out what it really meant to be a Gypsy. Having spent a year in north Baltzar returned back to his family. The family with its thirteen members moved to a little red cottage near a railway. In those days he went to the local village school, where he soon though ran away. That was all the education Baltzar got, the rest has been thought by life.

His parents were highly respected inside the Roma society. His father was a patriarch, a philosopher who could not read. Only traditions, culture and the civilisation of soul existed to him. His mother was a cultivated person, who was interested in classical literature. She taught her children to read when they were very young and led them to the world of literature. She even arranged literary meetings with her friend Liisa Peura, the richest woman in Kuopio. Already as a child Veijo Baltzar attended to these meetings and got strongly influenced by them.

Baltzar began writing at young age. In his twenties he fled hunger and travelled to Helsinki, the growing capital of Finland. Soon the young talent was noticed and people began to call him a novelist, all though none of his texts had been published. His first novel Polttava tie, The Burning Road (1968, Brännande väg 1969) was a big success and a sensation. It was the first book ever in Finland that was written about the Roma and their culture, seen as the eyes of a Roma. It is a novel about travelling, traditions and confrontations with the majority. By marketing his book, he made his culture known inside the majority. The novel was also published in Sweden. Verikihlat, The Engagement of Blood (1969) is a story about love, hate and blood revenge. In Mari (1972) he discussed about women and their position inside the tribe. Mythic novel Käärmeenkäräjäkivi (1988) was a nominee for the highly respected Finlandia -literary award. Musta tango, The Black Tango (1990) tells about Gypsies in modern Finnish society, after they moved to the suburbs. Baltzar has also written a novel for children about Gypsies. Mustan Saaran kristallipallo, The Crystal Ball of Black Sarah was published in 1978. His next novel will be published in autumn 2000. Baltzar is also working on a libretto, a TV-manuscript and a film manuscript that are all about Roma.

Veijo Baltzar has also been active in theatre and playwriting. He has written tens of plays, most of them focusing on Roma, but there are also plays about myths, religion and war. He was the founder of Roma theatre group Drom, which won in 1981 the Year’s theatre action - award. He has been the leader of two Roma theatre courses in the Theatre high School of Finland and that way was also Drom established.

Veijo Baltzar is also poet, many of his poems have been composed and recorded. He has written manuscripts for television. Mustalaisballadi, The Ballad of Gypsies was produced 1974 in Channel 1 in Finland. Punainen puutarha, The Red Garden won the first prize in The Golden Harp- competition in Dublin 1980. Veijo Baltzar is a Gypsy who is proud of his ethnicity and identity. He has lived in a close connection with the majority through his human relationships and work. Strong Roma identity and deep knowledge on the culture of the majority have opened strong and critical views on both worlds.

Bibliography

1. Literary productions

2. Plays (written and directed)

2.1 Whole night plays

2.2 Poetic plays

2.3 TV- and listening prowram manuscripts

2.4. Movie manuscripts

2.5 Librettos

3. Other literary works

4. Visual arts

5. Other works

6. Memberships

7. Prizes for literary works

VEIJO BALTZAR - the director and play-writer

Finnish Roma author Veijo Baltzar has done significant life´s work for the Roma people. His first novel Polttava tie (The Burning Road) was published in 1968. During these three decades he has written several novels, poems, short stories, articles and radio plays. Baltzar has also been active as a theatre director and as play-writer. There has been about 30 projects based on his plays. He has written movie manuscripts: the short movie Punainen puutarha (the Red Garden) was awarded in Dublin 1980.

Veijo Baltzar was also the founder of the first and only Roma theatre group in Finland in 1976. In 1981 Drom won the Theatre Action of the Year – prize. In the beginning of the eighties Baltzar worked as a leading teacher in the Theatre Academy of Finland. In that position he was able to make Roma theatre known in the majority and also get more appreciation to the culture of the Roma by showing how diverse and rich the tradition of the Roma is.

Theatre group Drom performed all around Finland for ten years and in 1984 they also had a show in Hamburg. Baltzar wrote and directed tens of tragedies, poetic plays and musicals to the group. He started to write novels again and left his position as the leader of the group and soon after that Drom was unfortunately abolished.

Baltzar returned to theatre in 1992, when he continued playwriting and directing. He also taught in many different municipal and state institutions. In the Student theatre of Kuopio (middle Finland) was performed his play Jumalten paratiisi (the Paradise of Gods) where from Baltzar received the culture award of the town. In Imatra (eastern Finland) he wrote and directed a folk opera Orli, which had all together about 100 persons with it. They made two different versions of it and the project lasted for two years. The first one was patronaged by the wife of president Ahtisaari, the second one by Finland´s prime minister Paavo Lipponen and the present president Tarja Halonen. The premiere took place in the Finlandia - concert hall in Helsinki.

Description of Phuro

Phuro is an extensive epic novel about the Roma, the saga of a family, which tells a tale of the community through that of the relatives. The story takes place in a city by the sea, which is ruled by the aged Roma patriot Mofal, and his brother Marfalo. Because of their love for one another, cousins Carajan and Gimara must flee blood revenge. This story of two families in Europe following the Second World War is built around the theme of forbidden love. They have lived through war, persecution and still remember what happened in the gas chambers. By means of its wide gallery of characters the novel introduces the whole spectrum of Roma culture with its multiple levels and hierarchies. Phuro concentrates in describing the process of change that takes place when new and old culture meet. When the relationship to one’s own tradition falls apart greedyness and envy take over.

Phuro is a mighty familysaga, which draws a powerful picture of the life of modern nomads. It consecrates it’s readers to the culture and tradition of the Gypsies. It is also a shocking story of forbidden love and blood-revenge, which drives close relatives against one another. Carajan and Gimara are cousins and children of the most powerful families in the tribe so their relationship is illegal in the eyes of the Roma. There is also a battle of power, ruling of the city, between Carajan and Gimara’s brothers. In a fight Carajan kills one of Gimara’s brothers and the couple must flee. For their own people they have become outlaws, but there is also a crack in their relationship. In the same time Baltzar’s novel deepens into a description of the transitional stage of today’s Roma. In this stage against are the traditions and laws that has guided and kept the Roma together and alive, on the other hand the modern broken of age individuality. Baltzar writes the story of his own people at the same time deeply understanding and passionately living with in.

Phuro is also the name of the tribe elder, he is the highly respected holy father. Strong respect towards older people and own tradition governs the life of Roma. For Phuro other people are the most important thing. Mental needs and strong relationships are what this novel is about. Homo sapiens is a gregarious animal, which means that invidualism or isolation are not natural. Phuro shows us that other people and strong relationships are the most important thing in the world. Money or lust for power must not go over that.

Phuro is the result of a long process of writing, for which author Veijo Baltzar had been gathering information for many years. The ambitious goal of the author is to offer the Roma people a culturally unifying work, which draws on traditions, laws, myths and rites as they are regarded from within the tribe. To the wider audience Phuro offers a view of the social culture of the Roma, in fine detail and affected by their migrations. For his own people Veijo Baltzar wants to establish a foundation for a common identity and brotherhood. Without an epic there is no nation. Although the Roma are spread around the world, there is still a shared feeling of identity of being a Roma. Phuro is the first one to answer the question who Roma really are, what are ancestors have been , what our values and goals are. Phuro demands us to be proud of our self.

Phuro has been written at a time when the Roma question is timely all over the world. Organizations are rising up to defend the rights of Roma people to education, a dignified human life and to their own culture. Roma around the world are awakening to appreciate the significance of literature to their national identity. Now it is time for the voice of the Roma to be heard. On the universal level Phuro gives voice to questions of importance to other majorities and minorities as well.

Phuro has already awaked a lot of interest. In Finland the book was published published by Tammi, part of the Bonier group, the biggest publishing house in Skandinavia, in the autumn of 2000. Matila & Röhr Productions has reserved the novel's film rights. An opera based on the book has also been planned, its music to be composed by Tuomas Kantelinen, acclaimed for his music for motion pictures.Veijo Baltzar has written five novels, numerous plays, radio programs, movie scripts and poems. In October of 1999 he received an international award of merit at a review of Gypsy Art in Lanciano, Italy. The "Amico Rom" event was arranged by the Italian "Thèm Romanó" cultural organization in cooperation with the European Commission, the University of Paris and the Italian ministry of education. The author has also introduced his work internationally at the Romani Union in Berlin and in Sweden and Germany.

Extract from PHURO

“It was spring. A mild wind blew in from the sea, the meadow was green, the trees were in leaf. A festive table had been laid outdoors, but no one was seated beside it as yet. A black bird was flying in a curve in the sky. All of a sudden it dove towards the ground, caught a silver spoon in its mouth from the table, and disappeared over the horizon.

The patriarch Mofal, who was celebrating his birthday, was strolling towards the table from the other side of the meadow accompanied by his family and friends, while his younger brother Marfalo approached from the opposite side of the meadow. Both brothers were handsome hunks of men whose hair had already begun to go grey at the temples, but whose mustaches were thick, their strides were manly, their backs were held straight, and their gaze was sharp. All of the men wore wide-brimmed felt hats on their heads and shiny black leather boots on their feet. From their belts hung decorated whips and brass horse-headed scabbards. They had black suits, white shirts with collars and wine-red scarves which were wound once or twice around their necks. The women, for their part, were dressed in long skirts, colorful blouses and flower-covered ruffled scarves. Older women had shawls on their shoulders as well as scarves and wide rings with stones on their fingers which sparkled like the bejewelled eyes of the Prince of Darkness. Around their necks hung necklaces of jangling golden coins and bright cameos shone on their breasts. The maidens' rings were narrower and their stones were a modest red or blue. Around their necks were thin strings of pearls. The littlest girls also wore golden earrings. It was if all the gypsies in the world were on the move this day to honor the patriarch of their tribe, and it appeared as if they were carrying all the gold and riches of the world on themselves. The meadow was filled with purple and luster. ”