Best Actress Award at Locarno for the film Gadjo Diloa popular singer on the electro-Balkan scene, the Franco-Romanian Rona Hartner, 50, died Thursday, November 23 in Toulon (south of France), announced the diocese and one of her friends.
“With great sadness, we learn that Rona Hartner, actress, singer, producer, very involved in the Toulon Christian artistic community, has left us”, wrote the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon on its Instagram page. “She died this Thursday from cancer, she had lived in Toulon for around ten years. He was a very happy person.”declared Alain Vignal, history professor, who was one of his friends.
“Someone of great generosity”
Born on March 9, 1973 in Bucharest, Rona Hartner notably played alongside French actor Romain Duris in the film Gadjo Dilo, by Tony Gatlif, in 1997, story of a Frenchman going to Romania in search of a Roma singer. For this role, she won the acting prize at the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland).
“It’s heartbreaking for me, he was a wonderful person, very generous, in the game as in life. When she won a prize in Locarno, she took everything there was to eat and put it in a bag. The people of Locarno were offended but when she left, she gave everything to the poor. She was very generoussaid Tony Gatlif. For Gadjo Dilo, I really looked everywhere for an actress. I wanted someone like her. I’ve never seen actresses like that, someone who could dare to act like that, but she wasn’t vulgar. She gave. »
Rona Hartner had just starred in Alexandre Arcady’s film, The Little Blond of the Casbahreleased in theaters on November 15. “She was a beautiful and sweet person, joy and good humor on edge”declared Alexandre Arcady, specifying that she would be buried in Romania. “She will remain in our hearts. »
“I think she loved Romania a lot, but Romania loved her less”, laments film critic Irina Margareta Nistor. Despite its notoriety in France, “she didn’t get roles in Romania”.
Musician and singer, Rona Hartner had also collaborated with DJ stars of electro-Balkan music, such as the German Shantel or DJ Tagada (“Gypsy Therapy”), as well as with filmmaker David Lynch for a series of pieces (“You’re More than That”). In 2015, she signed the album The Balkan Gospelmixing Roma music, gospel and jazz.