The Symbol of 'But Hope Is of a Different Color' in Lagtaa's Short Film

What Is "But Hope Is of a Different Color"?

The student short film But Hope Is of a Different Color (1972) is a documentary created by Moroccan director Abdelkader Lagtaa during his studies at the Łódź Film School. The film focuses on a Romani family living on the edge of Łódź, forced into a sedentary lifestyle after years of itinerant work. Lagtaa described his approach as a “poem” and his title originates from a line of his own poetry. The film was intended to offer a critical view of Polish society by centering on a marginalized group. The film’s title was later adopted for the book Hope Is of a Different Color (2022) by Magda Lipska and Monika Talarczyk, which explores the international student experience at Łódź and themes of Cold War internationalism, decolonization, and the resilience of creative expression.

Literal Content and Context

According to Lagtaa’s own account in the book’s Chapter 31, he encountered the family while location scouting. They lived in a separate neighborhood at the edge of Łódź and made a living by buying cloth from corner stores and reselling it as expensive imported goods. They were “forced to become sedentary,” and they sang and “got by” as “marginals.” The film is a documentary short, likely in black-and-white, made during his third year of study when sound films were required. It appears in the filmography of student shorts in Chapter 32, listed alongside over 100 other works by international students.

The film is not merely an ethnographic record; Lagtaa used the family’s story to critique the gap between socialist ideals and the actual treatment of minorities. The phrase “But Hope Is of a Different Color” is taken from a poem Lagtaa wrote, suggesting that the hope embodied by the family is not the uniform, state-sanctioned optimism of propaganda, but a more complex, personal, and resilient form of hope.

Recurrence in the Book

The title But Hope Is of a Different Color recurs throughout the volume:

Chapter 2 highlights the film as one of the key achievements in the biographical profiles of filmmakers.
Chapter 3 reproduces a still from the film, emphasizing its place in the school’s visual history.
Chapter 31 contains Lagtaa’s extended interview, where he describes the film’s making and intentions.
Chapter 32 lists the film in the comprehensive filmography of student shorts.

By adopting the film’s title as the book’s own, the authors elevate it from a single student work to a central metaphor for the book’s overarching themes: the persistence of creative expression under political repression and the search for alternative futures.

Shifts in Meaning

The meaning of the phrase “But Hope Is of a Different Color” evolves across contexts:

Within the film: The “hope” refers to the Romani family’s resilience and creativity despite marginalization. Their singing and resourcefulness represent a stubborn optimism.
Within the book: The phrase becomes a symbol for the diverse hopes of international students from the Global South who studied at Łódź during the Cold War. It signifies a hope that is not only political but also rooted in cultural difference and resistance to monolithic ideologies.
For the reader: The “different color” invites reflection on race, ethnicity, and the hidden histories of Eastern Europe. It challenges the myth of a race-blind socialist world and reclaims the voices of those who were systematically erased.

Character Connections

The film is inextricably linked to Abdelkader Lagtaa, who brought his background as a poet, communist activist, and member of the Souffles magazine circle to the project. His friendships with Mostafa Derkaoui and Abdelkrim Derkaoui (though the latter is not separately listed) were crucial: they met at Mostafa’s apartment for political and artistic discussions, forming a support network that sustained their work. Lagtaa also collaborated with Polish conceptual artist Ewa Partum, whose avant-garde methods influenced his approach to poetry and film.

The Romani family themselves are unnamed in the surviving evidence, but their presence anchors the film’s critique and gives a face to the abstract theme of hope.

Theme Connections

The film weaves together several major themes of the book:

Hope and Solidarity Across Boundaries: The film demonstrates how creative work can express hope even in oppressive conditions, echoing the solidarity among international students.
Race, Racialization, and the Myth of Race-Blind Eastern Europe: By focusing on a Romani family, Lagtaa exposes the racialized hierarchies in Polish society, challenging the notion that socialist states were free of discrimination.
Cold War Internationalism and Educational Exchange: The film is a product of the Łódź program that brought students from the Global South to Poland. Lagtaa’s critical perspective shows that these exchanges were not one-way flows of ideology but spaces of negotiation and resistance.
Decolonization and Third Cinema: The film belongs to the tradition of Third Cinema: politically engaged, socially conscious filmmaking that questions colonial and neocolonial power. Lagtaa and his peers sought to make “modern films that questioned reality.”
Memory Erasure and Archival Recovery: Many student shorts were lost or not preserved; the book’s inclusion of this film is an act of recovery, restoring visibility to a work that might otherwise be forgotten.

Study Questions and Answers

Why did Abdelkader Lagtaa choose to film a Romani family for his student documentary, and what does this reveal about his artistic intentions?
Answer: Lagtaa wanted to offer a “critical view of Polish society” through the lens of a marginalized group. By focusing on a Romani family forced into sedentary life, he highlighted economic and social exclusion in a supposedly egalitarian socialist state. The film allowed him to explore the gap between official ideology and lived reality, a theme that resonated with his own political activism and his experience as an international student.
How does the phrase “But Hope Is of a Different Color” function as a metaphor within the book?
Answer: The phrase, originally from Lagtaa’s poem and film, becomes the book’s title to encapsulate the idea that hope emerges from diverse, often suppressed perspectives. It suggests a hope that is not monolithic or state-approved, but one that is colored by the specific struggles of marginalized people, including international students, racialized minorities, and anticolonial activists. The metaphor underscores the book’s argument that creative expression can endure and envision alternative futures under political repression.
In what ways does the short film reflect the broader themes of the Łódź Film School’s international program during the Cold War?
Answer: The film is a product of the school’s commitment to social realism and politically engaged filmmaking. It demonstrates how students from the Global South used documentary to examine social issues and critique power structures. At the same time, the film’s critical view of Polish society shows that these students were not passive recipients of Soviet ideology but active producers of independent thought. The school’s relative openness allowed Lagtaa to tackle controversial subjects, even if the film was not widely distributed.
What does the film reveal about the intersections of race, class, and hope in the context of 1970s Poland?
Answer: By documenting a Romani family’s economic strategies and their forced settlement, the film exposes racialized class stratification in socialist Poland. The family’s resilience—singing and “getting by”—embodies a hope that is not about political revolution but about everyday survival and dignity. The film’s “different color” of hope suggests that marginalized communities maintain their own forms of optimism, distinct from the official narrative. This intersectional view anticipates contemporary discussions about race in Eastern Europe and the need to recover silenced histories.