A new film about the persecution of Roma people during the Holocaust premiered in Belfast on Wednesday night as part of the Belfast Film Festival. Rozkvet is the debut feature film by North Belfast director Thomas Pollock and written by Andrew McNeill.

Set in occupied Czechoslovakia in 1943, the film centres on Erika, played by Katarina Kokenyova, who takes up arms to protect herself and her young son Fillip after her husband is killed by Nazi forces. She isolates herself and her son in a forest, and she agrees to assist the local resistance in a mission that spirals out of control.

The cast includes Kokenyova's sister, Lejla Szajkova, as her resistance fighter sister Kvetka. Andrew McNeill plays an SS leader named Engel who is hunting Erika down. Czech actor Pavel Kriz appears as Silvano Reale, an Italian diplomat. The production features a number of Romani actors in its cast.

The film was shot in the summer of 2024 at locations in Belfast and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. It was originally conceived as a one-act play before being adapted into a screenplay with producer Larry Cowan of Lamb Films.

At the premiere, director Thomas Pollock said the project began as a short film, then became a play, and eventually a feature film. He described the production as authentic and noted the challenge of making a World War II film on a low budget.

Writer Andrew McNeill said he was inspired to write the story after hearing from his wife Katarina, who comes from a Roma background, about her family's experiences during the Holocaust and World War II. He said the Roma people have faced persecution historically and continue to experience discrimination, referencing anti-Roma racism in Ballymena and Belfast in recent years.

McNeill said he wanted audiences to understand the historical context and recognise that Roma people deserve respect and should be free from stereotypes. He said having the film premiere in Belfast, where it was filmed, was an honour for everyone who worked on it.

The film portrays the Roma Holocaust, in which up to 1.5 million Romani people are believed to have been murdered in Nazi-controlled territories.