ROOTLESS

Rootless takes place in New York City during one long day. It explores 24 hours in the life of a Hungarian American interpreter, Judit, who works for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Today, her job is to translate at three asylum hearings for the Hungarian Roma who want to escape discrimination in their native country. Among them there is a hearing of a broken Hungarian Roma family first fleeing the war in Ukraine, then racism in Hungary. The cases unfold from the protagonist Judit’s POV. The narrative is framed by Judit’s morbid discovery at an Ultrasound examination early morning when she simultaneously learns that she is pregnant and that the fetus is dead. Amidst the turbulent hearings, she is obsessed with eliminating the fetus from her body by the end of the day. However, she has to work the whole day, and even in the evening, she is requested for one more interpretation; this time, in the Detention Center. The story gradually reveals Judit’s lack of meaningful human bonds; we get a glimpse into her chaotic lifestyle of lovers, drugs and alcohol. All this is about to change due to the cathartic realization of death in her body. Perhaps as a consequence of this tragic turn in her life, she becomes emotionally involved in one of the asylum cases. Suddenly, she is forced to engage with another human life, and this could lead to finally ending her long-time pattern of escaping responsibility. Rootless can be viewed as an allegory for freedom: potentially, the Roma will be able to live free from discrimination in a new country, and Judit can free herself from her troubled past.