On April 8, the European Union Center marked International Roma Day with a screening of the award-winning documentary Missed Lives: The Dom People at the Levis Faculty Center.
The film follows the Dom community of Hatay, one of Turkey's most marginalized communities, whose long-standing social exclusion deepened further in the wake of the devastating February 2023 earthquakes. Through personal testimonies, the documentary bears witness to loss, resilience, and survival — and to how discrimination intensifies in times of crisis.
The screening was followed by a Q&A session with director Mehmet Kuyumcu and fellow crew members Aytaç Kayacık and Ferman Erol. Kuyumcu, himself a member of the Dom community and a native of Antakya, spoke about his motivations for turning to filmmaking as a way to document and preserve his community's stories and cultural heritage.
Missed Lives: The Dom People received the Best Documentary award at the Ake Dikhea? International Roma Film Festival in Berlin in 2025.